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Show Pfe Aft THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, I'tth. Tuesday, April Erica was placed on her mother's chest and the Wrights could find an ounce of comfort in know ing that Brenda's arms were wrapped around her little princess as they threw a handful of black earth onto the casket of their daughter and granddaughter, and then turned aw ay to w alk into the arms of their own grief. When Dan and Ron Lafferty were arrested on Aug. 7, 1984. in Reno, Nev., they were gambling at the Circus-Circu- s Casino. When their faces were flashed on television screens that evening, terrified L'tahns saw the alleged killers laughing and smiling as they were led to jail in handcuffs by armed guards. In the months following the capture of the Lafferty s, the story of their descent from church-goincommunity and professiond al leaders to killers was revealed in bits and pieces through various media accounts. Psychologists and psychiatrists examined evidence, picked apart religiosity theories, and looked into the ey es, hearts and souls of the two men who had forced an entire state to take a step backwards. There were stories so bizarre and strange that they seemed impossible. The healing of sick dogs, women forced to give birth on the kitchen table, men trying to become gods, marrying and n divorcing with slips of paper, documents that ordered killings, violence so extreme that ail forms of life were threatened. The Laffertv story seemed end- - RETRIAL: (Continued from Page Al) through Utah Valley as if a raging fire were moving from tree to bush to tree. Two local men were suspects in the brutal American Fork murders. Two boys who had grown into men while playing baseball, hiking in the canyons and sitting next to their friends and neighbors in church. Two men who had once been respected family men. Two men w ho had held the hands of their own children and rocked their own babies to sleep. In Payson, Provo, Orem. Alpine and Highland, entire families were peering out of w indow s in fear. Mormon Church leaders who had counseled the dissident Lafferty brothers fell to their knees to pray for help and guidance. Doors were locked, window shades pulled tight against the afternoon sunlight, dogs were kept chained to front doors. Some men and women guarded their homes with loaded weapons. Other families packed up station wagons and literally run from their homes. They ran because they were afraid, because they had know n one of the Lafferty s. because they had voiced an opinion against them, because they were frightened and scared, because they had been threatened, because they didn't know what else to do. While police searched the western half of the country for a aroup of L'tah County killers. Brenda and Erica Lafferty were Buried in the rich IJaho soil close to where Brenda grew up. It is a quiet place with rolling hills, rniles and miles of endless Idaho sky. waving fields of grain and silence that is only broken by the constant blowing winds. ' Brenda's parents. Jim and LaRae Wright, stood together as a lone casket was lowered into the warm soil and struggled to control an overwhelming sense of grief, pain and anger. Their beautiful daughter, who had won beauty pageants, excelled in school and seemed destined for success, had been beaten, strangled, her throat had been slit, and she had listened to her own daughter scream for help. Their granddaughter Erica, an exact duplicate of their ow n daughter, had been an innocent, happy, trusting baby girl. Erica had changed their daughter's life, had shown her the joy s of mother-ho- t hJ. the promise of the future. t. It Goetz civil caseT hits courtroom : Kunstler died of a heart attack on Sept. 4, 1995. at age 76. Goetz, who survived a 1989 bout u ith cancer, has spent most of his money on legal costs. 1 he By LARRY McSHANE Associated Press Writer NEW YORK Through II ears, Bernhard Goetz has stuck bv his story that he shot four black youths in the subway out of cold-bloode- n -- rf three other wounded youths James Ram-sewound up in jail for rape, and Barry Allen and Triv Cantv for robbery. Goetz. 48, no longer rides the subw ay and has mostly spurned the spotlight, preferrins the soli- ur self-defens- e. Monday, Goetz faced a S50 million lawsuit from one of his victims that portrays him as a racist w ho overreacted. The case will go on. however, without the plaintiff's famed attorney. William Kunstler, w ho died last year. "The poignancy of this case is going through the files, seeing Bill's notes, suggestions and writings, said Ronald Kuby, Kunstler 's long-tim- e law partner. "The only" sad thing about this case taking so long is that Bill isn't here as lead coun- sei. Over that time, the Goetz was case g, s Photo Courtesy ol Kris Radish Brenda Wright Lafferty and her husband, Aiien Lafferty. hold their daughter. Erica Lane, in this 1983 photograph. Erica could not have been more than 7 months old in this photo. Allen found his wife and baby murdered on the evening of July 24, 1984. Alien's brother Ron is currently being retried for the murders. Another brother, Dan, is serving a life sentence. again been resurrected. If anyone duplex, w ho talked to the Lafferty dared to forget w hat happened on brothers and stood in the crowded Pioneer Day 984. a word, a sinaisles at the funeral will have gle name, the sound of a blaring reoccurring nightmares the rest of siren can brine it all back. It is too their lives. There are others, friends and relatives of the Lafferty s. who In Provo, Orem, Alpine Highknew something, who could have of win- done something, who will have a land, different form of nightmare. It is a in fear. window dark dream that comes out of nowhere, not always at night, and grabs every available ounce of oxygen in one swift, suffocating, sickening movement. with The Lafferty story , the story of families the murders of Brenda and Erica up literally ran Lafferty. can nev er become a forfrom gotten part of the history of Utah because the murders, the motives, the remembering will surface each hard to forget such a tragedy. time there is the sound of a less. There were murder trials, an The scars left by the murders famisuicide, attempted griev ing screaming siren, a baby calling for of Brenda and Erica Lafferty are her mommy, a mother and father lies who spoke out in anguish so wounds that may never heal. Men who are grieving. deep that a spontaneous stream of w omen w ho became fathers and And every hot July 24 holiday, tears seemed to run throughout and mothers following the murthere will be a million memorial L'tah Valley. It would take months ders held their own serv ices for the lost dreams of the for the traffic flow that passed by babies to their chests and sobbed the murder scene to diminish and dead, each time a set of eyes are as they remembered Baby Erica raised to the high Wasatch Mouneven longer for the world that and the screams of her mother. tains. The majestic, striking fanned out from that spot to stop Police officers and reporters w ho shakina. mountains that stand guard over Twelve years later, the mursaw the murder scene, who the fences and w;IN of the prison watched as the bodies were ders, the screams, the sound of that greets everyone who passes terror and friehtened voices have moved from the American Fork into l'tah Vallev. seized by advocates on opposing sides urban of issues: hand-wntte- , of his Greenwich Village NBC New s that he was on a hal lucinogenic drug when he made three years racist comments before the shootings. deposi- Goetz. in a pre-trition. never mentioned any drug , al here as lead Crime. r use. althoueh he's become an t advocate of.m marijuana legal-- , ization. ,,,,, t ' I' rsunsuer s ., him ilvilh u the chance to fol-- J t.'l L. .! low inrougn on a li.ruit., ill it li l.H u Ronald Kuby, t..4i..' ii:ti: long - time law national attention surrounded his 1987 and Payson, entire families were peering out Doors were locked, dows shades pulled tight against the afternoon sunlight, dogs were kept chained to front doors. Some men and women guarded their homes loaded weapons. Other station wagons and packed their homes. tude ,w apartment. He spoke with The,'.' Associated Press shortly before the I Oth anniversary of the shootings; last month, he told "The only sad thing about this case taking so long is that Bill isn't Race. Gun control. Vigilante justice. Much of the 1 ' partner criminal trial. Goetz. acuuit- ted of attempted murder, spent 8 12 months in jail on a weapons conviction. Kuntsler represented Darrell Cabey. who was paralyzed in the Dec. '22. 1984. shot t inc. A pretrial hearing was set for'Nlonday. w ith jury selection to follow. Cabey. 30. slipped into a coma after being shot and suffered brain damage. He now has the mental capacity of an y ear-olCabey s case portrays Goetz as a racist gunman who walked up to the bleeding youth and delivered the paralyzing cun-sho- t. announcing. "You uWt look too bad. here's another." Goetz's defense is just as plain: He fired in when approached by four menacing muggers who tried to shake him down for S5. He declined to expound on that when reached by telephone last week, saying he was "too busy" to talk. 8-- mint iviuuii fwvwal over the"'' ' Nears. "This u :i" kind off.: the Bill':! thine on thrived L. I' IS.UOV 2 SillU. It was ! Kun-.i- i stler who won a light to keep the L case in Cabey s home borough of the Banx. where a recenij stuuy snowed civil trial jury ver-- j diets favor the plaintifl 79 pcr-f- j cent of the time tthe national fig- -' ure is 57 percent ) Goetz wanted a chance of venue to Manhattan!'' ' where lie lives and the shootings occurred. ,uu When Kunstler wrote in hit'"' autobiography that Goet wa ' ' d. "a murderous vigilante" wirji'tl "venomous feelings" towani'n blacks, the subway gunman',) sued one of tw o unsuccessful H libel suits he filed against Kun-istler and Kuby. He also filed an , assortment of ethics charces against the pair; all were 3is-,u n self-defen- missed. J When Goetz was diagnosed , J with testicular career. Kun-- ' stler's response was pointedly ' unsympathetic. "It possiblv makes' me ,' ,: believe in God.'' he reflected. n s i2? I V ati on a , . faO I I UeaeftiNlori Ruing light Suson f oston Block and Dark World. James (. a in E. lig:' Who Yo Really Are. Brad Wilcox has on Night oo lone WoH Mountain. ExprtsskMS of Foitfc fcstmoflies of enthusiasm ond o certain author Jock Weyland latter-da- how we as lotterticy book quietly in church playfulness hove compiled sixteen Saints can bring the light meetings or os a Scbhcth fun to listen to him. essoys by highly respect- of Christ more fully into activity. Features cross- ed LOS scholars or the out lives with specific word puzzles, word counsel for IDS parents, searches, and mazes. 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