Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.
Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.
Today we want to tell you the story of a Mingo County Sheriff who was murdered after only
serving three months and two days in his position in the corruption in a small town's justice system.
This is the story of Walter Eugene Crum. Walter Eugene Crum was a graduate of
Barch High School and began his career in law enforcement as a correctional officer for four
years serving with the Matewan and Dale Barton police departments in Mingo County, West Virginia.
Crum also served as a police officer in the Matewan Police Department while working with Chief
Dave Stratton for 11 years before accepting the Chief of Police position with the town of Dale
Barton. After achieving the role of Chief of Police in Dale Barton, Crum stepped down and
ran successfully for the office of Mingo County Magistrate. He served 10 years on the bench
as a Mingo County Sheriff. While he was waiting to take the office, he was hired by the prosecuting
attorney C. Michael Sparks as a special investigator for the Mingo County's Prosecutor's Office.
Eugene Crum had nearly three decades of direct law enforcement experience as his qualification
to become Sheriff. Crum's term as Sheriff of Mingo County was brief but made a huge impact.
Within the 93 days that Crum was the Sheriff of Mingo County, he had 57 felony drug convictions.
According to the Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsberry, Crum had done more than any
other Sheriff had done in the previous 30 years and he had made more indictments that Mingo County
had seen in the previous eight years. As Sheriff, Crum was determined to put a stop to illegal drug
trafficking in the county. As a sign of dedication to Mingo County and to his passion in law enforcement,
Crum would eat his lunch in his official cruiser every day just to observe a pill mill that had
been shut down a few years before to make sure it did not open again. Even before Crum took office
as Sheriff in January, he worked day and night making arrests and obtaining indictments while
he was a drug test force commander. While Sheriff Crum, his deputies and other law enforcement
agencies in Mingo County worked to wipe out Crum, especially targeting drug dealers. Crum had
received personal threats because of his fight to stop prescription drug abuse. When Crum was
confronted by Judge Michael Thornsberry about the threats that he had been receiving, he said,
I'm fighting back. I'm going to fight the good fight. It was only minutes later that he was murdered.
Judge Thornsberry was later sentenced to four years in prison for corruption, scheme involving a
defendant who had information about Crum's illegal prescription use and can't pay contributions, violations.
Crum was shot at Point Blank Range while sitting in his official vehicle in a parking lot. While he
was eating his lunch at the corner of Third Avenue and Harvey Street on Wednesday,
April 3, 2013, in Williamson, West Virginia, a little bit after that, Tennis Melvin Maynard,
37, of Raglan, West Virginia, walked up to the Sheriff's SUV and at Point Blank Range,
allegedly shot Crum in the forehead in Temple Region, killing him instantly. After killing him,
Maynard fled from the scene traveling south on US 52 towards Dale Barton, where he was shot and
transported to Regional Medical Center in Logan County, West Virginia and was later transferred
to Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. Crum was pronounced dead at the scene
by the Mingo County Medical Examiner, Mike Casey, and was transported to the West Virginia Medical
Examiner's Office in Trilson, West Virginia for an autopsy. The hang gun, allegedly used to murder
Crum, was confiscated from Maynard's vehicle and was identified by the Mingo County Sheriff's Department
Sergeant Joe Smith as a compact 40-caliber Glock hang gun.
Resident Jerry Kahn stood near the site of the murder hours later. The drug cracked down clearly
at the forefront of his thoughts. He said he told them right before he got in a sheriff,
if you're dealing drugs, I'm coming after you. I'm cleaning this town up, Kahn said. He got out
just to do one thing and that's to clean up this town. That's all that man tried to do.
Melvin Maynard, Tennis Melvin's father, said his 37-year-old son developed
mental issues as he was exposed to chemicals on a job in an Alabama colmum. His father would not
elaborate on what kind of mental health problems his son had, but he said he believed his son would
have shot the first person he saw. He admitted that his son should have been in a hospital,
adding that his son had previously been in an institution. It was later revealed that Crum
coached Maynard in boxing as a child and was accused of abusing him. Crum's funeral was held
on Sunday, April 7th at 1 p.m. inside the Mingo Central High School Gymnasium. Several thousand
attended the visitation and funeral. Over 500 law enforcement officials were in attendance from
all across the United States, including Alaska, California, Mississippi, and Texas.
And 273 police cruisers participated in the funeral procession as a show of respect.
You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
Maynard's family claimed that this shooting was motivated by the fact that Maynard was raped
by Crum when he was a teenager. Court documents revealed that another rape allegation was brought
up against Crum. It is alleged that Crum raped a 19-year-old woman in 2002 in the back of a
police cruiser while two officers sat in the front, turning up the radio to cover up the attack.
The allegations are part of a wider investigation into the murky world of Mingo County where all
allegations of murder, public corruption, illegal drugs, moonshine, and illicit affairs have rumbled
for decades. In an article, Devana Ball said, I've heard the stories. It's not true. I don't believe
it. I've known Crum for decades. If it was true, why didn't it come out when he was running for
sheriff? Why are they waiting for the man to be dead to bring it out? He's a hero. He'll stay our
hero. He's a good man. From all of my research, I could tell that the town of Williamson was
basically divided over this. Some believe that he did it and some just didn't. It was basically a
he-said-she-said situation going on and the only people who really knew are the ones who were there.
After the death of Crum, James Smith, who ran against Eugene, was appointed sheriff.
Not too long after the murder of Eugene Crum, accusations of corruption in the Mingo County
justice system began to come to light. As the FBI was investigating the motives for Eugene's murder,
in a Charles Sincassette article, it stated that the investigation had been going on for over a year
at this point. The former U.S. attorney, Booth Goodwin's office, was over it. During this time,
there were claims that Crum had been purchasing prescription painkillers. According to these
claims, he owed George White, the man who made the signs for his campaign, $3,000.
Allegedly, Crum didn't want to pay and he reached out to other people in the legal system to get
the man put away on drug charges. Two involved have denied all allegations, but one was expected to
plead guilty. In the article, it stated that Eugene just owed $3,000 when it came to all the
materials owed for his campaign with no mention of drugs. It was after George White was arrested,
he said he had been selling pills to Eugene. When it was found out that George was talking,
there was a rumor that there was an attempt to replace his lawyers by the corrupt officials.
His current lawyer was acting as a middleman between his client and the police. White actually
agreed to change lawyers due to the fact he knew the corruption in the legal system would make sure
that he was found guilty. Allegedly, with him agreeing to the deal, he was sentenced to one to
14 years for selling drugs to an undercover cop. From what I've seen in my research,
most people in the town of Williamson knew about the corruption and knew what to expect
with the outcome because it wasn't uncommon for people to plead guilty either way.
According to the same article, there were other charges pending against Crum. The FBI was
investigating Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum for money laundering by raging to buy
campaign signs with cash obtained from a doctor convicted of running a pill meal.
According to a federal search warrant, the warrant that was unsealed last week,
Dr. Diane Schaefer, paid hundreds of thousands in cash to George White to make Eugene's signs.
According to the warrant issued to search Crum's phone, the FBI was also investigating whether
Crum committed male fraud by submitting fake campaign disclosure forms by mail.
And also, if Crum possessed legal drugs and if he intended to distribute those drugs.
In September 2012, Diane plead guilty and was sentenced to six months for the misuse of her
drug enforcement administration registration number. In the plea, it came as a result of a
federal probe that examined more than 118,000 prescriptions that Diane had given out since
2003. Someone who knew Eugene and the others involved talked to the US today in September 2013
and said he's dead and he can't defend himself. But I knew him all of his life and I never knew
him to be involved in it. As far as we knew, it was all nice people. We don't know who to trust
now. In the same USA Today article, it said last month, federal prosecutors charged George
Thornsberry with an unrelated conspiracy. They said they had powerful judge of 16 years had
an affair with his secretary and repetitively tried to frame her husband for crimes he did not
commit after she broke things off.
In 2015, Eugene's widow filed a lawsuit against the funeral home and several county officials
over the burial expenses. She claimed in the suit that two Mingo County commissioners and a former
commissioner had told her that they would handle the expenses of the funeral, at which point the
funeral home put together an elaborate funeral before sending her the bill. The suit was dismissed
by the county circuit court and the decision was appealed to the state supreme court which further
backed up the decision. The reason it was ruled this way is that there was apparently no contract
in place between Rosie and the commissioners. If all of this is true, it's so messed up.
We both know how expensive funerals can be, but to have one be elaborate and held in a high school,
you know it's going to cost a pretty penny. Again, from my research, I'm not sure what she did,
but I can't help but feel bad for her. She lost her husband, therefore losing half of her income.
She gets told the funeral would get covered, then she gets the bill, then to top it all off,
she's dealing with her husband's reputation being drugged through the mud.
In 2018, Tennis was evaluated again to see if he was competent enough to stand trial. He was
actually deemed competent at this time. A member of the prosecutor's office, Chuck Miller said that
at this point that he expected may nurse defense to try to put forward an insanity plea. In Metro
News article, Miller said competency is an issue whether or not you can stand trial,
once he goes to your state of mind at the time of the crime. During his competency hearing,
media was not allowed inside the hearing, but according to court officials, Kittle ruled that
may nurse should have been sent back to the sharp hospital for further evaluation.
Canola County prosecutor Chuck Miller said Kittle felt more information was needed.
The issue of competency of the defendant has been before the court for some time,
and there was a hearing yesterday on that issue. The judge in the case, Kittle returned him to
sharp hospital for further evaluation. With an update in 90 days, the judge felt additional
information was needed. Since the incarceration of Tennis, his father who served as the specs
person of the family passed away. Tennis has been in a mental hospital in western West Virginia
since 2018. As of right now, I haven't been able to find any more updates since the trial from 2018.
I'm not sure if his mental state has gone down, or if they got a second opinion on him.
As far as Rosie is concerned, according to a Harold Dispatch article, I've been a train wreck
since all of this happened, but I've finally kind of moved on with my life. I hope the justice system
does what they are supposed to do. She is convinced that the claims against her husband
are false. She said, I know what kind of husband I had. To this day, we still have no idea
the true motive as to why Tennis targeted Eugene. Could it be from the sexual assault he suffered
as a child? Could it be from his mental issues? Either way, there's a lot of people out there
who believe Tennis knew exactly what he was doing.
Next time on Mountain State Mysteries, we're going to tell you the story of a woman whose death to
this day is a local legend. If you find yourself enjoying Mountain State Mysteries, take a second
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