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[Music]
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in the backwoods of georgia
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in a dilapidated house
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a 49 year old recluse named virginia
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ridley was found dead
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a medical examiner ruled the death a
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homicide
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but who would murder someone who seldom
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ventured out of her home
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investigators found some clues in the
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notes she had written
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shortly before her death
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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ringgold georgia is a small rural town
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located at the base of the blue ridge
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mountains
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life is simple here
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the main street has only three traffic
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lights and most of the town's 750
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residents know or do business with each
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other
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alvin ridley was a well-known figure in
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ringgold
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at one time he ran the town's only
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television repair shop
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in 1966 he married 18 year old virginia
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hickey and almost immediately virginia
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cut off all contact with her family
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alvin said it was because her family was
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too intrusive
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virginia's sister trixie lacroix says
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alvin forced virginia to stay away from
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her family i sent them an invitation to
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every wedding
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every death
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every birthing
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in our family
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to no avail nothing was ever
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acknowledged nothing
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my father's death
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my father went to his grave
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after making every effort possible to
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try to see his daughter
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never having seen her after
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she
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got you know mixed up with mr ridley
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alvin ridley had a reputation in
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ringgold and it wasn't a particularly
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good one
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he was known for filing lawsuits against
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anyone he felt had wronged him and in
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the process he had made a lot of enemies
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he's
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always accusing he's
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very suspicious he trusts
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no one
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really
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and
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so that
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obviously put him at odds with a lot of
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people city government on licensing
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issues
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the city chief of police of course
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the the county sheriff
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in 1984 after a minor traffic accident
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he filed a series of legal actions and
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got hit with a countersuit
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he lost and had to forfeit his van as
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payment
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july 1984
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they
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seized my van without due process a law
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about a fair hearing
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and it
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uh somewhere and i returned all my
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customers and friends and
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suppliers and
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dealers and creditors against me and
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they wanted to send me no more products
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so it forced me out of bed
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the loss of his van meant the failure of
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his television repair business which
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started a further downward spiral
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he was known as crazy alvin by the
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town's people
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his reputation was not helped by the
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fact that no one had seen alvin's wife
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virginia not even her family in the 30
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years she was married to alvin
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what i couldn't understand if she was
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mad at her family
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why did she not go to the door for
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friends
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so that kind of made me
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believe that maybe possibly he had
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given her instructions not to
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he got angry
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at her
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maybe i told her not to
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and i the thought crossed my mind maybe
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she was being kept captive
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what went on in alvin ridley's secluded
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house
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was the subject of town gossip
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but on the morning of october 4
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1997
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it became news
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virginia ridley was found dead in her
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bed
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fully clothed
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by the time medical personnel arrived
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rigor mortis had set in an indication
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that she had been dead for at least
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eight hours
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trixie lecroy was asked to identify her
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sister's body
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i could not do it i could not do it
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so my sister's husband was with her
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and she the two of them went in
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and she
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came back out and she said
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you know i'm so glad you didn't go in it
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was not a pretty sight
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she said
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her hair has not been combed in years
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it's just
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it has so many knots in it
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it has not been combed in years
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she can't weigh
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90 pounds
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she's skin stretched over bone
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new rumors began to surface in ringgold
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georgia about alvin ridley and the role
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he might have played
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in his wife's death
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in october of 1997 virginia ridley was
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found dead in a house with no phone no
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running water and infested with ants and
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cockroaches
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she had been dead
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at least eight hours before medical
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personnel arrived which prompted
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questions why had it taken her husband
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alvin so long to call for help
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virginia's sister trixie lacroix
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believes if he had called earlier
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her sister might still be alive
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there's no doubt in my mind that this
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man was responsible directly or
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indirectly from my sister's death you
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cannot convince me of anything else
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investigators traced alvin's steps on
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the morning of virginia's death
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alvin said that when he woke up his wife
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was dead he got into his truck and went
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looking for a telephone
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he admitted driving by the local fire
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station which could have provided
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emergency assistance
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instead he continued driving to a
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telephone outside of town
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he did not call the local hospital 10
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minutes away instead
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he called a hospital in chattanooga
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tennessee
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some 30 miles away
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they told him to dial 9-1-1 for local
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assistance which he finally did
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leaving this message
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9-1-1 where's your emergency
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134 inman street what's the problem i
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think my wife passed out
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134 inman street yeah
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is she breathing
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i don't think so it's behind the steel
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plant uh
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i'm calling from a pay phone booth
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you don't have a phone at your house
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there's no phone
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there's no phone there
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investigators were struck by the lack of
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concern in alvin's voice it was unlike
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most emergency calls they received
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the initial examination of virginia's
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body was done by the local coroner
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bonita hollander
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in virginia's eyes the coroner found
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particular hemorrhages which are broken
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blood vessels often seen in cases of
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strangulation or smothering deaths
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descendant is a female in her late 40s
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decedent is malnourished kill
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hemorrhages around her eyes
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the next day
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a full autopsy was performed
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the medical examiner dr frederick
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hellman found something not noted during
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the initial examination deep bruising on
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the muscles of virginia ridley's neck
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another possible indication of
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strangulation
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virginia ridley's death was ruled a
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homicide
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and her husband alvin was charged with
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murder
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to those in ringgold who knew alvin
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ridley as crazy alvin the news came as
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no surprise
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everybody thought he killed his wife
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back in the 60s
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or the early 70s
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and there was even talk that he killed
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her long long time ago
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and
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and then one day he calls 9-1-1 and
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there is a
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recently dead body
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in the bed
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and that's his wife
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because of the particular hemorrhages in
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the eyes and the condition of the body
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the coroner suspected foul play
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and police could find no indication that
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virginia had received routine medical
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care in the recent past i think they
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checked the 50 to 100 mile radius
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no doctor
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no physician
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no pharmacy
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no hospital
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this girl had not been anywhere in 30
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years
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the town of ringgold was gearing up for
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the biggest trial in its history
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and investigators were in for another
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surprise
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when alvin ridley gave his explanation
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for how his wife died
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trixie lacroix regularly visits the
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grave of her sister
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a woman with whom she has more contact
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in death
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than she did in life
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that's because trixie and the rest of
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her family hadn't seen virginia at all
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during the 30 years she lived with alvin
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ridley the man now accused of her murder
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i will say this that if there is a god
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almighty above
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if there is a day of reckoning for all
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of us
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which i believe there is
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i would not want to be him
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alvin ridley steadfastly maintained his
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innocence
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i felt terrible
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sad
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depressed because i lost a loved one i
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cared a lot about
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he's married 30 years
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sweet happy christian married life
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i never hit her time she never hit me at
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times i was married of course we got in
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a few arguments because off
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alvin's defense attorney mccracken
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poston knew that the case against his
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client wouldn't be easy
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alvin's reputation and behavior after
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his wife's death made his defense
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a unique challenge
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several members of my family just said
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he's crazy he's capable of anything
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i was about to get married and
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several members of my wife's family were
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fearful of
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my getting involved
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in defending alvin
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alvin had developed
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for himself
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somewhat of a reputation as a panhandler
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or a con man
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poston visited alvin's run-down house on
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the edge of town
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and amid the cockroaches and broken
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windows
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saw something he hadn't expected
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the walls of the house were plastered
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with handwritten notes
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some were letters to congress that alvin
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had written but i began to notice a
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distinct handwriting
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that i knew was not alvin's
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and i asked him
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who wrote this
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he said well virginia did
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and i grabbed a piece off the wall and
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you know i said alvin this will save you
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we've i've got to have all of this
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there were hundreds of notes
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all apparently in virginia ridley's
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handwriting
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some dealt with everyday matters like
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what she had watched on television
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in notebooks entire chapters of the
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bible had been transcribed repeatedly
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but most
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were love letters
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to alvin
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ken poston did not believe the love
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notes were the writings of a woman being
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held against her will
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but could he prove to a jury that
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virginia had actually written the notes
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brian carney a forensic document
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examiner analyzed the letters
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carney had little to work with but he
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did have some known signatures of
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virginia ridley on some official
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documents written years earlier and he
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found a number of unmistakable
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similarities
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the obvious features that you can see
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just at a glance are for example the
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three eyes in virginia's are very tall
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comparatively speaking their lower case
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letter forms cursive writing
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but the if you were to draw
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a horizontal line right across the top
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of this eye all the way to the end of
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the name
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you would see that all of the eyes are
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taller than the other internal letter
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forms and you scan down through the
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series in comparison of question to
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known
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you can clearly see that this eye
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feature
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is a habitual writing movement of this
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this particular writer and i was able to
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state
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that there were strong indications that
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virginia was the writer of the
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comparable
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entries so what we're essentially
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talking about is those letter
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combinations that have
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that are the same as the name virginia
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and the signatures that have the given
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name virginia
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virginia's family told investigators
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that virginia suffered from epilepsy as
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a child
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epilepsy is a neurological condition in
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which uncontrolled electrical charges
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from the cerebral cortex can result in
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violent seizures and convulsions
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according to her writings
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virginia had stopped taking her epilepsy
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medication years earlier
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relying instead on her faith in god to
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heal her
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the defense consulted dr braxton
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wanamaker who is a neurologist
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he said the particular hemorrhages
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around virginia's eyes were consistent
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with what is called
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sudden death epilepsy
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dr wanamaker says sudden death epilepsy
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occurs in patients who stop taking their
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medication or haven't been properly
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diagnosed
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i've had other patients who are sleeping
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with their spouses
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and
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they wake up and find that their spouse
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is dead
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so people may or may not witness the
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seizure
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and there are some of us who are not
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certain that all of these deaths are
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associated with seizure per se
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but may have some epileptic
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activity in the brain that changes heart
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rhythms or changes respiratory
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mechanisms such that people die from
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that alvin ridley said his wife had
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seizures on a regular basis he said she
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had a particularly bad one on the night
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before she died after she had the season
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got over it i said
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are you going to be all right
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and she smiled at me says yes honey i
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love you
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so
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you know
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i
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thought she'd be all right so i went off
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to sleep
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but according to alvin
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she was dead when he tried to wake her
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the next day
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alvin said the seizures were the reason
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no one had seen virginia in all those
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years
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she was so embarrassed about her
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seizures she wanted no contact with the
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outside world not even her family
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[Music]
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but the defense had one last hurdle
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how to explain the bruising on virginia
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ridley's neck
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evidence that the medical examiner said
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pointed to homicide
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[Music]
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judge ralph van pelt presided over alvin
00:17:10
ridley's murder trial and immediately
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had him evaluated by a psychologist
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he certainly probably would have
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qualified i think for mentally ill under
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the georgia statute but that's only if
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you're found guilty but mentally ill
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these the psych the report indicated
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that he was competent to stand trial
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could assist his attorney in a defense
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and knew right from wrong
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at the trial
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alvin's defense team needed to refute
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the prosecution's contention that the
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bruises on virginia ridley's neck were
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evidence of strangulation
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dr robert goldberg a forensic
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pathologist hired by the defense
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discovered that an employee in the
00:17:50
coroner's office had drawn blood from
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virginia ridley's neck for a toxicology
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test which was a complete break from
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standard procedure
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this is highly irregular
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and is something that procedurally
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is an error
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when the autopsy was conducted the next
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day
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dr goldberg believes the needle marks
00:18:14
had developed into bruises which are
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known as artifact a term for any changes
00:18:21
in the body caused by postmortem
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evaluation
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i think it would be absolutely essential
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that any coroner
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have some autopsy experience
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even if they don't conduct the autopsy
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themselves
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they should know the appropriate
00:18:37
procedures
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it was clear to me that this coroner was
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way
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way out of
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line
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with appropriate procedure
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in georgia the coroner is an elected
00:18:49
official
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and this was the first suspicious death
00:18:53
thanita hollander investigated after her
00:18:55
election
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alvin's attorney believes that the
00:18:59
coroner's inexperience and her own
00:19:02
personal suspicions about alvin ridley
00:19:05
affected her judgment
00:19:07
when that body
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went to the state crime lab
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and she accompanied it
00:19:13
she reported when they arrived this
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woman has been locked in a basement for
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30 years
00:19:20
the state
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pathologist that conducted the autopsy
00:19:28
i think that was an improper
00:19:30
suggestion
00:19:32
based on no fact
00:19:35
that made it easy for him to conclude
00:19:38
homicide by asphyxiation
00:19:41
alvin ridley took the stand in his own
00:19:44
defense
00:19:45
he said he drove by the local fire
00:19:47
station after his wife's death because
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he had had a prior run-in with the
00:19:51
people there and didn't trust them
00:19:54
he said he called the hospital in
00:19:56
chattanooga because that's where he'd
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taken his mother years earlier it was
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the only facility he was familiar with
00:20:05
after two hours of deliberation
00:20:07
the jury acquitted alvin ridley of all
00:20:11
charges
00:20:13
he claims
00:20:14
it was his wife virginia
00:20:17
testifying through her letters
00:20:19
who kept him from a life behind bars
00:20:23
i felt like my wife actually and the
00:20:25
lord saved me
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and ended here
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alvin ridley still lives in the same
00:20:33
dilapidated home on the outskirts of
00:20:36
town
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and still talks about restarting his
00:20:39
television repair business
00:20:42
he visits virginia's grave regularly
00:20:45
a privilege he enjoys because of the
00:20:48
role science played
00:20:50
improving his innocence
00:20:53
i guess he was a strange man i
00:20:55
understood him to be a hermit
00:20:57
i understood him not to have the social
00:20:59
skills
00:21:02
that the rest of society has
00:21:06
and unfortunately i believe that had a
00:21:08
great deal to do with the fact that he
00:21:10
was tried
00:21:13
fortunately the truth went out
00:21:16
and he was acquitted
00:21:19
good lord
00:21:20
if it hadn't been for this scientific
00:21:23
evidence
00:21:25
the risk was so high
00:21:26
that the local
00:21:28
community prejudices and biases
00:21:31
about alvin ridley and his
00:21:34
years and years of strange behavior
00:21:37
would have been difficult to overcome
00:21:40
i think it's a
00:21:42
story about how the system works
00:21:44
that someone has their right to make the
00:21:47
state prove that they're guilty prove
00:21:49
that they did it beyond a reasonable
00:21:50
doubt
00:21:51
and a fellow
00:21:53
with just very modest resources was able
00:21:55
to come in and
00:21:58
prove that he was not guilty established
00:22:00
that he was not guilty
00:22:02
[Music]
00:22:18
so
00:22:20
[Music]
00:22:26
[Applause]
00:22:28
[Music]
00:22:33
you
