But those who loved him cried. In the last two years, those transactions have involved selling, rather than buying. But the dealer who claimed to have traded drugs for bogus documents says the case typifies the way business is done in Booger County: "It's a very crooked county, yeah. 1988/06/20. Ralph Baker had served as Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas, from 1973 until his tragic death on January 5, 1998. In Huntsville's drug community, sex is just another form of currency. Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt. ", And in the Sept. 4 edition of The Madison County Record, Baker posed with a gram-sized mound of sugar substitute and told the newspaper: "There is a certain circle of people using the drug. Baker was driving a lumber truck and working as a bouncer at the Red Fox Lounge in Springdale when former Sheriff Fred Crumbley made him a deputy in 1971. I was pleased to discover that the New York Times rightly devoted as much space to a recent obituary for my local baker . As a teen-ager, his daughter, Patricia Baker, and a friend, Sandra Harp, found some of them in the glove compartment of the sheriff's pickup on March 6, 1977. I don't owe anything, and I haven't owed anything in years.". Ham said the property value increased because of an easement -- the right to cross other property to access the land -- acquired before it was sold to the Martins and McGarrahs. He peeks out the window at each passing car. Under pressure from Baker, Everett and Knox resigned Aug. 7 from their unpaid positions. "It's tremendously lower than things closer in to Fayetteville, where I live," he said. The DEA has identified one of them as the largest in U.S. history. I have read this book a few years ago, it is actually written about the Sheriff of Madison County in Arkansas. Baker's former property became part of the Ozark National Forest. He dropped out of school after the ninth grade. N.Y.P.D. Baker, who earns $31,000 a year as Madison County's sheriff and tax collector, declines to talk about his land deals. There, Baker handcuffed Bingham to a prisoner's retaining ring in the lobby. "I try to never have any bills. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! Well, they buried him in uniform And it has spurred some of the county's most industrious methamphetamine dealers to claim openly that they can operate unchecked as long as they don't steal to support their habits. But a check of probate records in Madison County shows no evidence of an inheritance by either. One of Baker's fellow party-goers said recently that Johnson started the incident by attacking Corkern, and that Baker hadn't yet arrived. Testimony showed that, in one precinct, 140 people signed in to vote, and 155 cast ballots. Your sacrifice is not forgotten. Assessor Edward D. "Buck" Ham, who partnered with Baker to buy 120 acres in 1987 and then to sell them nine years later, said Baker is simply a good businessman who knows how and when to buy and sell. ", "He does pretty good for himself for an old country boy," said Berrian Brashears of Clinton, who sold Ralph Baker, Kenneth Baker and another cousin, Bob Baker, a tract of old family land for $7,000 in 1986. Deborah Roelandts (911 retired) David L. Bell In the news they told the story Cain, along with Phillips' brother and one of her sisters, beat the sheriff's office to her house. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. In this world of drugs and crime. Baker's receipts for the same period show $260 in payments. Marshal: Vacant Courthouse: Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Federal Building and United States Courthouse Address: 300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room C-109 PO Box 50184. "I'd go in any front door in the country with Ralph Baker. "I was police commissioner here for four years," he said last month in Olney, Ill. "I kind of found out how you do things.". Copyright 1996-2023, The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc, Registration for the 2023 National Police Week 5K goes up $5 on March 2nd save on our introductory pricing and, register today to run or walk in your hometown, View The stakes had escalated by 1994, when Craig Minor and his wife, Dianne M. O'Delle, were arrested on charges of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia on their Madison County farm. Create a free ODMP account now for these benefits: Create an account for more options, or use this form to leave a Reflection now. From the first marijuana seed he planted, to the Devil's bargain Mac struck with Sheriff Baker, this book explores their harrowing journey on the twisted outlaw trail. He ended the June interview when the subject came up. The same day, she and her husband sold it to the Bakers, again for $6,000. site may be freely linked to but not copied in any fashion without written He said the most memorable testimony came from a man who said that Bolinger, who still serves as county treasurer, personally delivered forms to voters allowing Bolinger to take their ballots back the courthouse. He tracked it back to a break-in at a south Fayetteville auto shop. Ralph Baker had served as Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas, from 1973 until his tragic death on January 5, 1998. "I've worked with Ralph Baker 21 years. He smiles at a 1996 FBI map of drug labs seized in Arkansas. He says he has personally investigated allegations involving Baker and the county's drug dealing and found no basis for them. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. "Since I've been sheriff, we hadn't hardly got any meth at all," he said in June. There, Dr. Tanya Claytor noted that Bingham's left ear was swollen, bruised and scraped. His wife, Margaret, said she and her husband bought back the land they had given away because they were concerned the business would place junk cars next to the family cemetery. Baker would be shouldered out of the investigation, then have it handed back to him. Columbia, South Carolina Imagine piles of money that literally grew on trees. On June 13, 1987, Baker and former Huntsville Police Chief Ed Sharp arrested a 19-year-old retarded Rogers man on allegations he had stolen two baseball cards during the annual "Hawgfest" on the town square. Baker declined to say whether he and Noreta had family money to work with. The Hams put their half of the land into a trust in 1988, and in 1993 the Bakers sold their half-interest to the Ham trust for $4,000. Paul.". This is Mac's story of damnation and redemption. "The main worry about that is if they jerk him in there once a month, and he takes a hot piss test, and comes up they can revoke him and I don't want them to have to do that," Harper told Minor. The state last audited the drug fund in 1996. '", TWO LAWSUITS, HINTS OF THE HIGH LIFE AND THE SHERIFF. In large part, he has been dealing with old friends, acquaintances and neighbors, buying and selling judiciously, usually at a profit. No one knows when Madison County got the dubious nickname Booger County. "Billie Phillips, g****** it!" At the heart of the confrontation over drugs, investigators said, was Baker's reluctance to bring in a Madison County man for DNA testing, a man repeatedly identified as a methamphetamine dealer during Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interviews. And you'll never live long enough to see him out of the pen again,'" Minor remembers. Former Massachusetts Gov. But Harp said she then ran afoul of the sheriff when she stole $80,000 from a home in the community of Hilltop. Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing. Less than a year later, in February 1994, the Ham trust sold a half-interest to the R&N Baker Trust, again for $4,000. With Bingham protesting that the baseball cards were his, Sharp tore up the citation he had written. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price. "That's all I realized, and that he was a very small man.". But Leathers said Baker was in charge. Sheriff Ralph Baker, the man who befriended David Mac, and taught him what it means to be an outlaw. This is his tale about life as a marijuana moonshiner in the Ozark Mountains, and the corrupt sheriff who made it all possible. Used with Special Permission of the Author But crank is his intoxicant of choice. He usually makes the money back on drug sales, he said, and worries more about being killed by a supplier than about getting arrested by the sheriff. He called Harper, and Harper called Baker. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. "He said, 'F.M., he's in serious trouble, and they're going to try him as an habitual. He drives a marked patrol car. That underneath his badge and gun, "Boy, that sure is a nice deal," said Dr. Martin, told of the dramatic increase. And some who listened cared less, Historians put Madison County's official age at 161. All rights reserved. Enfield discarded 79 absentee votes that Democratic campaign worker and then-state Rep. Steve Smith had gathered from the residents of the Meadowview Nursing Home. In the 1960s and 1970s, second-generation moonshiners switched crops and blanketed the county's deep woods with a particularly hearty breed of marijuana. One of those involved Craig Minor. As a teen-ager, Sandra Harp said, she and Baker's daughter moved freely through the sheriff's office and the jail. "Up here right now don't put a price on anything unless you want to sell it," said Kenneth Baker. all 12 Reflections, Reflections Terms of Use (revised 5/31/2012), View, edit or delete any Reflection you've left in the past. Washington County Sheriff Kenneth McKee, who once was the area's only state trooper, said Madison County was a moonshine capital, distributing its top-quality white lightning through the Ozarks and into Oklahoma. Probate records there show a $10 inheritance from the estate of Joseph Sphere Burrell in September 1963. 1963 - 1972. "We know the sheriff was doing an investigation," Leathers said. With Bingham's lawyer, Jim Rose III of Fayetteville, pressing hard, the two-day trial provided the first public glimpse of Baker's growing financial holdings. Meth and murder in Madison County by MICHAEL WHITELEY | October 19, 1997 at 8:52 p.m. HUNTSVILLE From the first radio call two minutes before noon, panic was a partner in the investigation of . This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In an interview this summer, she said Baker asked her not to talk about the drugs she and Patricia used from his truck before their 1977 accident. The man, Joey Bingham, began kicking the patrol car before the two officers forced him into the car and drove him back to the sheriff's office, Baker testified in a subsequent civil lawsuit. Sheriff Ralph Baker drowned after his cruiser was washed into a flooded river while he was searching for a stolen vehicle. I purchased this book through my daughter's Amazon link. But she'll have to give me half of it back.". respects to Sheriff Baker, who was remembered as someone who never backed He moved to Florida shortly after, according to law enforcement officials. The records paint a picture of an astute businessman who aggressively bought low and sold high. "Rusty Cain's been f****** her. "I wish I could come up on something like that.". The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. Minor asked him to get involved, and that all of the dealings with Baker and deputy prosecutor Billy Allred were aboveboard. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Sheriff Ralph Francis Baker Madison County Sheriff's Office, Arkansas End of Watch Monday, January 5, 1998 Leave a Reflection Reflections for Sheriff Ralph Francis Baker May your rest in perpetual PEACE. Land there is most commonly used for hunting, timber production or, after clearing, pasture. The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. by He was one of three children of William McKinley Baker, a former vaudeville musician, and Evangeline Verruchi, the 1927 queen of the Tontitown Grape Festival. : He even had his revolver, And his badge is shining bright. The county was formed on September 30, 1836. What's left is about $10 worth, and I'll give it to her. He started toward Springdale on Highway 68, taking Deputy Sheriff Phillip Morgan with him. He and Noreta had family money to work with campaign worker and then-state Steve. System considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon 68. Dea has identified one of them as the largest in U.S. history Minor remembers from estate. Listened cared less, Historians put Madison County shows no evidence of an inheritance either. 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