Comments on Advance Indiana™: Star Weighs In On Aaron Hall Case

Terry Gray was instrumental in aiding local author...

2007-09-01T20:47:00.000-05:00

Terry Gray was instrumental in aiding local authorities with their cover up of the Collman case. In return, his son is now getting leniency.

Drugs have played no part in any of the murders in...

2007-08-31T07:55:00.000-05:00

Drugs have played no part in any of the murders in Jackson County over the last couple of years.
In this article it appears that authorities are quite dismayed at the attention given this crime through the blogs and are now trying to say that it was alcohol that inspired this beating. They further remark that it was Thomas Hall who initiated this entire "hate crime" take on the murder. But, that isn't true. Crothersville residents explained to reporters that the perpetrators of this crime were spreading rumors that Hall was gay and had aids before his body was even found. They apparently were planning their "gay panic" defense prior to their arrests.
I see that Garrett Gray has retained John Plummer III as his defense attorney. This should be interesting. He was the defense attorney for Chuckie Hickman - the man who made a false confession in the Collman case (in which drugs played no part). He was also the defense attorney for Uriah Clouse - a man who was implicated in yet another false confession in the Behrman case. Maybe we'll find that Mr. Gray as well has simply made a false confession.

It's interesting that police claim alcohol-but not...

2007-08-25T20:08:00.000-05:00

It's interesting that police claim alcohol-but not drugs-played an important role in Hall's death. Remeber Denise Traver's article in which residents claim that the Gray home was something of a teen drug haven?
Ironic no mention of Terry Gray being the owner of the home in which the body was found. He was indeed the spokesperson for the family of Katie Collman. We had to hush the drug references in that case as well.
Then you get the actual coroner of Jackson County posting here claiming that Gray had not worked in his office for over a year. As if that justifies not being able to smell the body. But then again a local police officer who searched the Gray home two days prior to finding Hall could not smell the body either. That man was an uncle to Chuckie Hickman, the man who originally confessed to the Collman murder.
I smell something funny, and I'm not even a deputy coroner.

I'll respectfully disagree with you about Mr. Murr...

2007-08-22T06:34:00.000-05:00

I'll respectfully disagree with you about Mr. Murray's responsibility for the article he penned (or at least the one he signed his name to). I, like other readers, know him from his writing; that's the reputation every journalist creates, plain and simple. Mr. Murray apparently has rationalized things such that he can write a biased article for the world to read, one with major holes in it yet slick enough to deceive some, and sleep well at night. Maybe the IndyStar needs a new editor, if that person essentially told Mr. Murray what to write, as you have suggested. What is certain is that Mr. Murray needs to find a new newspaper to write for, IF he is as decent as you claim.

In the meantime, I'll stick with what I know: journalists are responsible for the articles that have their names attached to them, and it is fair to blame them for slanted works that bear their names. Mr. Murray's article about the Aaron Hall murder was just awful, and it sits forever in Mr. Murray's public resume. Shame on him.

anon 8:04, I don't think it's fair in this case to...

2007-08-21T23:41:00.000-05:00

anon 8:04, I don't think it's fair in this case to blame Murray. I know enough about him to know that he didn't get to write the story he would have chosen to write. This is the story his editor wanted him to write.

Here is the email I sent to the writer of the news...

2007-08-21T20:04:00.000-05:00

Here is the email I sent to the writer of the newspaper story about Mr. Aaron Hall, Jon Murray:

"What a biased piece of crap you wrote. Of course the defense attorney in the case will state that a crime with lesser consequences (real or perceived) occurrred rather than a more serious one. Isn't that the PR job of a good defense attorney? What did you expect him to say?

What you sadly overlook is that crimes of rage don't last for hours and don't involve torture. If, however, you had bothered to look at some hate crime murders of years past (whether due to sexual orientation bias or racial bias) you'd have seen that those victims are often kept alive, sometimes barely alive, for a while, while their tormentors have their way with their victim (remember Mr. Byrd in Texas?). A simple crime of rage does not typically result in the photographing of the victim. In the Hall case, however, trophy photos were apparently taken, another sign of a crime not fueled by alcohol-based rage, but rather a more callous, planful, hate-filled one.

From the slant of your article--one with not a lick of research into hate crime murder victims...hey why bother?--I'm guessing you don a white robe when you aren't writing drivel, or at least silently supporting those who do."

I blocked Murray from answering my email, because who has time to press the delete button of a bigot's email, let alone read it? Not I.

Let's do the math here, shall we:

The best research available indicates gay people make up about 4% of the population. That means that heterosexual people outnumber gay folks in the United States by a ratio of 24:1. So far this year, the U.S. has seen seven homicides belived to be due to sexual orientation bias. All involved male victims. So, if heterosexual males were being murdered at the same rate as gay men (or men believed to be gay) have been this year, then we should have seen 168 heterosexual men murdered this year by gay men, solely due to their heterosexual orientation. That translates to 21 murders per month every month thus far this year. If such a sick tragedy occurred, you can bet the good folks at the Indy Times, like Jon Murray, would be screaming that gay men are on a murderous rampage against straight men. They'd call it a genocide in the making.

"It's impossible to know what the men were thinkin...

2007-08-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

"It's impossible to know what the men were thinking that night. "

Priceless, right out of the AFA playbook.