by Wayne23 » Thu Jun 20, 2019 1:03 pm
1/1/1976: 7-5, 1-0. It was a one game week and we beat the team picked #2 in the conf., by 14 at our place. Great start! 27, 6 for Colu, 15 for Trap. +12 RBs. We definitely won it inside.
1/15: 9-7, 3-2, RPI #146. We’re winning at home, losing on the road. My short bench has me worried. The chief worry is that I will wear out my starters by playing them for too many minutes. When the game is decided, pro or con, I pull my starters to rest them, but in basketball that’s usually late in the game. I mean, with 3 minutes left, down by 10, or even 12, it’s still possible to pull it out.
1/29: 11-9, 5-4, RPI #129. +2.4 PPG (#175, #95), +2.9 RBs (#95), +0.1 TOs (#135). The numbers show that we definitely need to score more points, and we could do better with RBs and TOs, but we’re in the middle of the pack in the MT West, and that’s probably about as much as I can expect.
After 2 road losses I put Joe Hunt in the starting lineup as PG. I think we’re stronger with him there than with Brad Beau. Well, we won our last two so…
As expected an SG recruit didn’t hit our SAT score. We offered to a PG.
I like to keep track of things. 18 murders so far- 10 in Omaha, 2 in Fort Wayne, IN, one each in Fargo, ND, Lincoln, NE, Kansas City, MO, Tulsa, OK, Santa Barbara, CA, Riverside, CA. So 8 cities in 6 states. Too many in and around Omaha, but only about 6 of the Omaha ones were ever considered to be murders. I doubt that I have anything to worry about.
Actually, I truly believe that if I’m caught, it will be at the scene. The more I study up about murder statistics, particularly related to serial killers, they’re only caught under one of two circumstances, (1) They’re “caught in the act,” at the scene of the crime. That’s usually just bad luck. (2) They’re sloppy- they do too many in the same general location, or they use the same method too many times, or they go after the same type of person- prostitute, waitress, young woman… I’m careful. Unless I get really unlucky I may never be caught.
I’m getting the “itch” again. There doesn’t seem to be a timetable or anything, but at a certain point I start to get this feeling that is only eased by finding another victim. I’m starting to get that feeling so it probably won’t be long.
Oh, and I do “relive the moment” with my favorite murders. It doesn’t feel as good when I’m reliving it but it is definitely pleasurable.
2/12: 13-11, 7-6, RPI #143. Tied for 6th in the tough MT West. Frankly, I’d be happy to finish at 8-8 for the conf.
Early in the morning on 2/8, in Las Cruces, NM, after the game with New Mexico ST, I “went for a walk.” We hadn’t played very well that night and, once again, I was frustrated. I felt no need to get creative but I DID feel the need to add to my murder total. At about 1:30 a.m., on a back street, a teenager came walking toward me.
As he got close he asked for a handout. He was obviously high as a zeppelin on something. I dug into my left rear pocket as if to get some money out of my wallet. I pretended to drop the wallet and “accidentally” kicked it behind him a few feet. As he turned to get it I took out my blow gun and shot a dart into his butt.
“Ow! What the heck was that?” He grabbed at his butt, then started to run away with my wallet. Within a half dozen steps or so he stopped, kind of staggered, and fell to the sidewalk.
I took my wallet out of his hand, turned, and as I started to walk away a cruiser pulled up.
“Oh good. I was looking for a pay phone.”
“Do you have any identification, sir?”
“Yes. I’m Wayne Tuthry, Head Coach of the Air Force Academy basketball team.”
“I thought I recognized you, Coach. I was at the game tonight. Let’s see the ID though, just to be sure.”
I showed my ID, my real one, and explained that I went for a walk because I couldn’t sleep. I told the officer that the kid had approached me and asked for a handout. When I took out my wallet he stole it and ran away. Then he stopped and collapsed. I hit heavily upon the fact that he was drugged up.
Before long more cops joined us, and eventually, a detective. They took me to the station for questioning but never searched me. Finally, at about 4:30 a.m., the detective spoke to me:
“Coach, it seems pretty obvious that this is a simple case of an attempted robbery by a kid high on drugs. Looks like he took too much of something and it kicked in when he started to run. I’m guessing the autopsy will show a heart attack or something like that. You’re free to go back to your hotel. I know you said you get insomnia, and that you go for late night walks when you do, but it would be a good idea to stay on well lit streets. We have your contact information, but we have your statement and we probably won’t need to follow up. If we do, we’ll be in touch.”
That was the closest I’ve ever come to being caught, and if they had searched me the blow gun would have probably done me in.
I went back to the hotel, showed up at breakfast at 8:00 in the hotel, and boarded the flight back home. Before that I called Major Mize and told her about the incident. She said that since it would go public I should tell the team members what had happened. I did that by gathering everyone into a private room at the airport.
It was well known that I went for late night walks and no one questioned anything. A few people said they were glad I hadn’t been hurt or even killed.
The press was waiting for me when I got back to Colorado Springs. I stuck to my story and no one really questioned it. Most of the press was favorable but one reporter wrote that it was a really bad idea for me to be walking around in strange cities in the middle of the night and I was being irresponsible and setting a bad example for my team. That was the most negative outcome of the whole incident, at least so far. We’ll see what the autopsy shows.
2/24: The autopsy on that kid I killed in Las Cruces showed that he died of heart failure brought on by a cocaine overdose. Case closed.
My next murder will be #20. I decided to do some thinking to see if I could make it special.
2/26: 15-12, 9-7, RPI #120. We finish tied for 4th, #4 seed. I’m pretty happy with that. I’d really like to win at least one in the MT West tourney.
Got called in to the Provost’s office- they don;t call it that here, but that's what it would be at a non-military college so that's what I'll call it. The Provost is a full Colonel. He told me to stay off of back streets when I take walks, and if the hotel has a gym, to walk on the treadmill or something. Around the AFA campus I should stay to well lit areas. He didn’t really dress me down. It was more like a protect yourself and us from any hint of scandal kind of thing. I agreed.
No ideas yet regarding murder #20 and how to make it special, but there’s no rush.