Randa: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Stabbin' Stylists podcast. I'm Randa. And I'm Ashley. Some of these stories may be disturbing to some. Listener discretion is advised.

Ashley: Hey, guys. This is Ashley, and as I was editing this [00:01:00] episode, I really thought that I should come back and give even more of a strong, um, content warning on this episode because this episode does describe graphic child abuse. And I really try to tell you the story as much as possible because as much as it sucks and as much as I hate to tell you this story, this happened, and this little girl, Melissa Gibson, who was born in 1972, diver- deserves to have a voice.

And so as someone who made this podcast to give you guys these stories that are lesser known or to give you the truth on these stories that maybe you've heard about for a long time growing up here in town but never knew the story on or heard rumors of, we're here to give you the truth about them, and I want you to know that this, once again, is a [00:02:00] graphic episode, and my heart goes out to this little girl.

And this episode sucks, but this is part of our history, so I'm here to give it to you

Trigger warning: This episode contains graphic crime

There's not really a lot of banter on this episode because honestly, this case sucks. I don't really wanna tell you this, but this is a really highly requested one. This is one that a lot of people that live here in Cleveland remember, and at the same time, this case actually changed national laws. So this is the case of Militia Morgana Gibson, and she was a four-year-old here Cleveland, Tennessee, and her death really showed major gaps, honestly, in the Tennessee protection system.

Ashley: Her mother, Wanda Gibson, who later is Wanda Maddox, was involved with [00:03:00] Ronald Maddox, who became her stepdad. So over the time, the household included multiple children, but she was among it, the youngest, and the most vulnerable of all the children. And long before her death, authorities had actually already intervened at one point.

When she was just 11 months old, both Wanda and Ronald were jailed on child abuse charges.

Randa: Oh, cute.

Ashley: And she was removed from the home and placed in foster care, and despite all these warning signs, she was actually given back to her mother and her stepfather.

Randa: Oh, lovely.

Ashley: So by the time she was four years old in October of 1976, their house was, you know, back together.

They were together. She was there. And according to later testimony and court findings, the abuse had escalated over several days in October. [00:04:00] Witnesses and family members describe Ronald as drinking heavily during this time.

Randa: Mm.

Trigger warning: This episode contains graphic crime

Ashley: Sisters later testified that Ronald had forced her To run continuously through the house as a punishment

If she slowed down or stopped, he would beat her with a metal-tipped billy club or, like, a similar kind of object of that. And the punishment went on for extended periods far beyond what any child... I mean, this should never happen anyway, but- No ... it was extremely drawn out and way too much.

She was a four-year-old child.

Randa: Yeah, listen, I understand, like, having a kid get some energy out. But like, golly.

Ashley: Yeah, no, like, this was heinous. Heinous. beating her wasn't the only, like, form of cruelty is the really crazy thing.

Um, testimony revealed that when she asked for water, she was forced to drink hot sauce. When she- [00:05:00] What the hell? ... vomited, she was punished again. She was often forced into cold showers, and then made to remain in wet clothing. At night, she was denied proper bedding. She slept one night on a bare floor in an unheated room.

Another night, she was given only a mattress and w- no blanket. She was repeatedly beaten, isolated, and denied comfort. A four-year-old little girl. Four-year-old little baby. On October 13th, 1976-

Randa: Give it about five minutes with those monsters

Ashley: On October 13th, 1976, she was found dead inside the home.

Investigators arrived and found her body laying unclothed on a water-soaked mattress The autopsy revealed extensive injuries across her body. In the medical... This is rough. The [00:06:00] medical examiner documented widespread bruising, hemorrhaging beneath the scalp, and a traumatic tear to one of her kidneys The official cause of death was listed as shock resulting from repeated blunt force trauma.

Literally her body had just shut down from the shock. So Ronald and Wanda were both arrested shortly after, and October 20th, a Bradley County grand jur- jury formally indicted them on murder charges. Yeah. And it was quickly talked about case. Mm-hmm. There was public outrage.

Randa: As there

Ashley: should be. Um, yes.

National media came in. I mean, this got crazy. So they actually moved the trial to McMinn County, and it was held in Athens for an impartial jury. But still, I mean, it was already nuts from the test- or from the [00:07:00] reporters and the news- Yeah ... and all the things. So the pretrial hearings lasted for months, and defense attorneys attempted multiple legal strategies, and they were requesting separate trials for Ronald and Wanda, saying that their defenses would conflict.

Randa: Yeah.

Ashley: They attempted to suppress Ronald's confession and sought access to child welfare records to challenge the prosecution's case. And the judge, you know, denied both of this. Yeah. And I'm guessing they wanted separate trials, 'cause he was gonna say it was her, and she was gonna say it was him.

Randa: Oh, of course.

Ashley: In early 1977, the trial began, and prosecutors presented testimony from law enforcement, medical examiners, social workers, family members, Melissa's sisters. Um, they testified how living in that house was, how [00:08:00] Ronald really targeted her, how he beat her whenever he,

I don't wanna go back over all the things that was said, because that's everything from earlier, and-

Randa: It's horrendous ...

Ashley: it was, uh, yes, it was horrendous. It was heinous. It was horrible. Like I said, they ended up, you know, trying to blame each other for it. the jury found both of them guilty of murder, and both were sentenced to 99 years and one day in prison.

They obviously appealed, and the courts hel- upheld their verdict. He ended up filing additional appeals saying that his rights had been violated, and a federal judge ended up rejecting all of that and throwing it all out. Convictions- What- ... valid, shut up and go to prison ...

Randa: yeah, what kind of rights had been...

Well, maybe you shouldn't have violated that baby's rights.

Ashley: Wanda Maddox died in prison in 1997.

Randa: Mm-hmm.

Ashley: And Ronald Maddox actually outlived her for decades, and sh- he did not die until [00:09:00] February 2010 at the age of 64.

Randa: How'd she die in prison? They beat her?

Ashley: The, it didn't say. All I could see is she just died

this deeply then affected and still affects the community, and this case obviously exposed serious failures in the child protectum system, and how so many people had let her down, and how the government handed her back into an abusive household.

Randa: Yes.

Ashley: And in the years that followed, Tennessee strengthened its child abuse reporting laws, and mandatory reporting requirements became clearly defined, requiring teachers, doctors, neighbors, and anybody that suspected abuse to be a mandated reporter Yeah. And her case became one of the examples still to this day used in discussions about reforming child protection policies.

Randa: Interesting.

Ashley: And obviously there are still thousands of children that [00:10:00] unfortunately slip through the cracks of this, but she and her case is what- Started mandating reporting

Randa: Yeah

Ashley: It's really crazy that people knew about this.

A lot of people knew about this. People knew this was a thing. People knew this little girl was suffering from horrendous torture, if you see something, say something. That poor little girl literally, she was taken away at 11 months old, so her entire life was nothing but pain and tragedy, and she was the sweetest, most precious little girl. I just know she was.

Randa: Little baby.

Ashley: This sucks, but this happened, and, it's more of an injustice to not talk about it and not say Melissa's name and not

Randa: recognize her memory.

Speaker: Don't whistle in the woods at night. Bye, [00:11:00] y'all.