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Show c Mm D Weddings C2 B Business C4 The Daily Herald Thursday, November 21, 1935 The man in today's headlines (2 nr1 My friend, I'll call him Larry, has been in the news recently. And it wasn't good news, if you know what ! mean. Those of us who know him were stunned and saddened Those who didn't were... well, curious. For two or three days after the news broke, I heard from former friends and work associates who were trying to reconcile the Larry we knew with the one who was being portrayed in the news stories. And I was constantly being cornered by current colleagues who wanted the inside story on the man everybody is talking about - H V r1 H r 1 V i Women can find refuge from cyce of domestic abuse today. "So what was he like really?" I shrugged my shoulders every time I heard the question. It didn't make me angry. I just didn't know what to say beyond what I would have said two weeks earlier. "He's a good guy." "Yeah, right," the questioner would inevitably chuckle. "But there r Isssph V C ImM !m Wk 1 1JWIW If l$mi (SHI ' 'H V M V '- -jt3 ziitt&i S '" - Value Speak must have been something weird about him. I mean, look at what he did!" What be is accused of doing is no question about it But I 'bad never had any reason to believe mat Larry would be capable of such a ming. He is bright. Witty. Interesting. Fun. I've worked with him, traveled with him, talked with him for hours at a time. There were no Jiidden clues to a secret life, no tell-L- S signs of duplicity. Just Larry, "Well, there is one thing that has always struck me as a little weird," I eventually said. "Ever since I started working here, it was weird how much you reminded me of him." They would look at me and laugh, assuming that I was pulling their leg. I wasn't Not that everyone at my current place of business actu- -; aUj reminds me of Larry. But the fact B,they aren't much different from him. They're good, effective workers just like he is. They're pleasant likable folks just like he is. They have families whom they love and care about just like he does. And they have weaknesses, just failings and imperfections like he does. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to equate everyday human peccadilloes with the horrible crime of which Larry has been accused. But it is risky to view the work! in absolute terms, with good guys always dressed in white and bad guys always in black. While I don't deny the existence of people who are evil clear through jo (he bone, for the most part our jails are filled with good people win made a series of bad choices leading up to an unfortunate appearance on the nightly news. . At least, that's what a mutual friend of Larry's and mine decided on the phone the other day. "I keep looking back and wondering why I couldn't see that Larry had a problem." sIk said. "But I never suspected a thing. I fed tike such an idiot" "Why?" I asked. 1 don't know," she said guess I like to think that I'm a pretty good judge of people, and IH be able to tell if there's somebody who isyou 1 kriow-danger- ous." Do you really think mat Larry is dangerous?" I asked. "WelL I didn't think so." she said. "But dow- -J don't know. And that scares me. But do you wsnt to know what scares me even more? I know Larry pretty welL and we're alike m a lot of ways. So when I see his picture on TV and in the newspaper, part of me says. That could be me.' Who knows what I'm capable of doing tf I start making some bad choices?" indeed? That's why Who ka-wI as watch these sad and sorry everts unfold. I pray for Larry. I piav for the person whom they tty he vicamizcd. I pray for the bsn- i, lies. And I pray for us. Joseph Walker is a nationally lywLcaied coUtmmH ho lives m American Fort. r. r - Daily Herald Lifestyle Editor fi in 1 in in Uustration by John Taytor lease xjod, imw mm stop. Lying on the floor of her Provo apartment, they were the only words Elizabeth could think of as her husband of less than four months pounded on her head with his fists. Those words, like nearly every conversation and significant date from their six months together, are also pounded into Elizabeth's memory. They are part of an ordeal that has left this petite feeling like a woman twice her age. i m ; 20-year-- "I feel such a loss; it feels like I lost four years. I was 19 and I'm 20 now, but I don't look 20. I've aged so much. What I went through is more than most women will ever go through in 20 or 30 years of marriage," said Elizabeth, who requested that her real name not be used. A native of California, Elizabeth met her Sept 1 8, 1995, in a religion class at Brigham Young University. She was beginning her sophomore year while William, then 25, was beginning his junior year. The class lesson that day had been particularly moving. As she was gathering up her belongings, Elizabeth noticed William, not his real name, crying as he hugged the professor. When he was still upset after she spoke with the professor, Elizabeth offered him a friendly hug, which he accepted without hesitation. The two then walked to Elizabeth's next class and on the way exchanged phone numbers. Although she was thinking she'd made a new friend, William was apparently thinking more. By the time Elizabeth returned home, about three hours later, he had already called to ask her out for the evening. Elizabeth accepted his invitation and described the night as "really good" He told her she was beautiful, something no man had ever done before. However, she came home somewhat unsettled because she had a feeling she would eventually marry him and she'd never felt that way before. Things started to deteriorate the next night when William called and said he needed to talk to her. Elizabeth remembers getting a sick feeling, something that told her not to go. But she did aiTi shortly after they started driving up the canyon, William nd - me to do, but I didn't know him well enough to know what he wanted me to do. I'd known him a little more than 24 hours and he's yelling at me," Elizabeth said. vw- wwhat he wanted old After returning some harsh comments of her own, Elizabeth demanded to be taken home. William complied reluctantly and as she got out of the car, Elizabeth muttered to herself mat the relationship w as over. But when a beautiful love letter appeared on her doorstep the next morning containing confessions such as "I'm sorry," "I don't know what came over me." and "It wasn't all your fault," her resolve weakened and she decided they could still be friends. The scenario mat played out in those first three days is what Elizabeth now calls a synopsis of her entire courtship and marriage. In the month and a half they dated tefc.t getting married, she alien pted to break off the relationship at least seven times. But each time William would break down in tears, at times to the point of sobbing, and eventually convince her the fights had been her fault and they were really meant to be together. In fact, that exact situation took place the night they got married. It was Nov. 4. 1995, and when Elizabeth told William it was over, he said she at least had to go on a drishe owed him at ve with him least that much. Six hours later, Elizabeth was agreeing they were really meant for each other and the two were on their w ay to Las Vega. Nev where toty were nar-rie- d m tf 1y Nov. 5. S&f3af When the couple returned to Utah, the first thing they had to deal with was the missing person's report that had been issued for Elizabeth. Both her parents and William's mother had flown to Utah from California and Tennessee, respectively, to try and figure out w hat w as going on. "When I saw my mom, she said, 'I'm glad you're not dead.' Then she had to walk away because she was too upset," Elizabeth said. It was the last time she would see her mom until after she left William. The couple's first fight took place as they were moVing into their new apartment in Provo. Elizabeth started unpacking in the bedroom, and that made William mad because he would have started in the kitchen. This first incident only involved a lot of yelling, but it didn't take much longer before things got physical. Wiliiam turned to physical abuse for the first time about two weeks later. Elizabeth had been arguing with him and when she wouldn't be quiet, he slapped her. The next argument they had, Elizabeth warned him not to slap her and he didn't Instead, he punched her in the face. "He slapped me and I shut up. so he got what he wanted. The next time, he hit me and I shut up, so again, he got what be t anted," Elizabeth explained. William's need for control soon began lo surface in all aspects of (fceir Kltikmship. He insisted Elize abeth get job in order to support him in his efforts to (Sec ABLSL, Page C3) full-tim- j |