1995-01-09

DEADLY ENCOUNTERS

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It was about 3 a.m., and the Pinellas County sheriff's detective was tired enough to doze off _ until Paul "Red" Thompson started talking.

For detective Paul Martin, it was like a dream. Unlike most criminal suspects facing years in prison, Thompson needed no urging to describe his deeds.

Martin was stunned as he listened. He said that with cold bravado, Thompson provided details of murders, burglaries and robberies. Martin said he watched as Thompson proudly beat on his chest during his recitation of crimes committed in Pinellas, West Virginia and Virginia.

"Thompson is the most amoral person I've ever met," Martin said. "In his own words, life doesn't matter.

"He'd talk about a murder, and he'd sit there and laugh."

It was just the beginning. Thompson's companions, David "Bugsy" McKeone and Sherree Sprouse, also talked to Martin and detectives from other states. They, too, detailed crimes that authorities say included the savage beating of William C. Smith outside his Belleair Road house.

Authorities say the trail of crime was marked by a murder in the mountainous backwoods of West Virginia, another murder in a historic Roanoke, Va., neighborhood and an attempted murder in Pinellas County. The trail ended in Amarillo, Texas, where authorities say the next murder victim would have been Thompson's mother.

Held at the Pinellas jail without bail on attempted murder and carjacking charges in the attack on Smith, the trio is expected to face murder indictments when grand juries meet in Virginia and West Virginia.

The casual jail confessions about a multistate crime binge chilled Martin, a seven-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office.

"All three confessed to everything," Martin said. "It's amazing the amount we know about the last couple of months of their lives. The way they had started killing and how it got easier is like something out of the movie Natural Born Killers."

From burglaries to death

At first, there was no violence.

"Red" Thompson, 25, and "Bugsy" McKeone, 27, told Martin they became "partners" while in prison at Huttonsville Correctional Center near Elkins, W. Va., for property crimes. Both were paroled in late 1993.

Each returned to where he had lived before, and again became involved in crime. Thompson was a drug dealer in Amarillo, Martin said, and McKeone was part of a ring that stole cars and guns in the Morgantown, W.Va., area and transported them out of state.

Thompson joined McKeone in West Virginia last May. Hiding out in motels or rural cabins or with friends, they sold drugs, stole cars and committed numerous burglaries in northern West Virginia for months, authorities say.

"As much as they traveled around up here, it's hard to keep track of all they did," said Sheriff Ron Watkins in Marion County, W.Va. "They did several armed robberies. They did every bit of at least 100 burglaries, and from the details they've described to our detectives, there's no doubt they committed them."

Authorities believe violence first erupted during an armed robbery at a furniture store in Green County, Pa. The store manager was pistol-whipped.

Sprouse, 22, who had no previous criminal record, worked at a bar when she met Thompson and McKeone last summer. She told Martin that she traveled with them and became Thompson's girlfriend, but often did not participate in crimes.

On Aug. 23, the killing started.

Thompson and McKeone wanted a car and money to get out of the area. They went to the wood-working shop of Harold "Jonesy" Jones, 63, who Sheriff Watkins said was involved in theft rings in rural Marion County. Thompson told Martin that he grabbed a metal rod used to hold furniture together.

"Thompson said he hit him once to knock him down and hit him six or seven more times," Martin said. "He pounded on his chest and told me he beat the man's head in. That was the first murder we know of."

Jones' killers took a Buick and all the money in his pockets: $27.

The trio headed to Roanoke, Va., where they met Virgie Green after befriending her daughter. McKeone, Thompson and Sprouse moved in with Green, a 44-year-old widow who lived in a historic Roanoke neighborhood, and stayed for several weeks.

Then Thompson decided Green knew too much, Martin said. It was time for the second murder.

In a killing mood

On Oct. 25, the four were playing cards about 2 a.m. in Green's house. Thompson got up and returned with a metal rod wrapped in cloth.

"He said it was better if they just killed her," said Martin. "He hit her on the back of the neck because he didn't want to make a mess. He knocked her to the floor and beat her to death."

Green's body was stuffed into the trunk of an abandoned car. The detective said the trio stole a television, some guns and a pickup.

McKeone, Sprouse and Thompson took a bus from Abingdon, Va., to Florida to hide out with a friend in Pinellas Park. The friend would have nothing to do with them when they arrived Oct. 27 in St. Petersburg.

After spending the night at a St. Petersburg motel, they went to Ybor City for Guavaween and partied all night. Out of money, they contacted a Tampa woman they met on the bus trip.

She took them to the Econo Inn on U.S. 19 near Nursery Road and paid for their room for two nights. When they could not pay for a third night _ Halloween _ motel manager Darlene Cerka offered them work in return for lodging. They turned her down.

"They weren't impolite," Cerka recalled. "I just told them to get off the property. I guess I'm lucky to be alive."

Even luckier was Harold Davis, owner of Happy Harold's Laundry on Harn Boulevard near U.S. 19. McKeone, Thompson and Sprouse hung out at the coin laundry for several days and spent Halloween night in a nearby abandoned shed. After watching Davis empty the change machine and pocket a wad of cash, Martin said, Thompson wanted to kill and rob him.

"Thompson ripped apart a chair and took two legs of it to beat the man to death," Martin said. But they never harmed Davis.

"McKeone just didn't feel like killing him," Martin said. "Thompson and McKeone both said he doesn't know how lucky he is."

Davis, 80, knew the two tattooed men with backpacks and Harley-Davidson shirts and their companion were trouble.

"I could see they weren't worth much," Davis said. "I never let them get close."

On Nov. 1, Green's body was found in Roanoke. That day, William C. Smith was alone when he went to his house on Belleair Road _ a few blocks from the laundry _ to talk to three people asking about his cars for sale.

This time, Martin said, McKeone was in a killing mood.

"They did a nasty job'

Smith was in a coma at Bayfront Medical Center for three days after his daughter found him lying in a pool of blood next to his house. Hit repeatedly with a car strut, his bashed head and face were held together with stitches.

McKeone told Martin that he hit the 67-year-old retired teacher about 10 times and thought he was dead. As Smith fought to live, McKeone, Sprouse and Thompson drove Smith's Toyota Camry to Amarillo and spent money they found in Smith's wallet, Martin said.

"The only good that came from this is that maybe they didn't kill anyone else because of Dad," said Billie Williams, Smith's daughter. "They had his money and his car.

"I didn't like their looks when I found them outside (my father's) house looking at cars, but the woman kept smiling at me. It's just fortunate I decided to check on Dad after I sent him to the house to talk to them."

Smith went home from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. His calloused hands deliver a strong shake, but he gets dizzy and still has headaches.

"They did a nasty job, but I was too hard-headed to die," he said. "I don't remember a thing, not even how they look."

Detectives got fingerprints of Smith's attackers and launched a nationwide search. Martin said that search focused on Amarillo after Roanoke officials investigating Green's murder and Pinellas detectives compared information, matched fingerprints and learned the trio probably was headed there.

Based on a tip from Thompson's mother and others in Amarillo, authorities there located Thompson, McKeone and Sprouse early Nov. 5 and arrested them.

"They went to Amarillo to kill his mother _ Thompson himself says that," Martin said. "He was mad at her.

"They were surprised Smith was alive. Thompson said that if he'd hit him, he'd be dead."

Authorities are standing in line to prosecute the three after they face charges here. Thompson is due in a Pinellas court Tuesday. According to the office of the Roanoke commonwealth's attorney, a grand jury will consider indictments in Green's death this month. Murder indictments are expected in Jones' death when a Marion County grand jury meets in February.

Thompson's mother and Sprouse's brother, Kevin Sprouse of Mannington, W.Va., did not respond to requests for an interview. Jeff Purdue, a friend of McKeone's in Morgantown, spoke to McKeone after he was jailed in Pinellas.

"I asked him why, why the murders," Purdue said. "He said he did it to get out of a situation. He was all the time stealing, but I didn't think he was capable of murder."

Martin believes authorities may never know the true tally of crimes. But he knows one thing for certain.

"Thompson would keep on killing," Martin said. "He'd even talked about killing Sprouse because she was excess baggage. It was getting easier and easier to kill."

A violent trail leads to Clearwater

1. Convicted of various property crimes, Paul David Thompson and David Thomas McKeone met while serving sentences at Huttonsville Correctional Center near Elkins, W. Va.

2. Both were paroled in 1993. McKeone returned to the Morgantown, W. Va. area, where he lived before going to prison. Thompson lived for a while in Amarillo, Texas, before joining McKeone in West Virginia in May.

3. Authorities say the two men sold drugs, stole cars and committed numerous burglaries in Marion County, W. Va., and the surrounding area. Their crimes escalated into violence during an armed robbery at a furniture store in Greene County, Pa., where the manager was pistol-whipped.

4. Sherree Lynn Sprouse joined them after they met at a bar where she was working near Waynesburg, Pa.

5. On Aug. 23, Harold "Jonesy" Jones was robbed and killed at his rural wood-working shop in Marion County. The 63-year-old man was beaten to death with a metal rod. His Buick was stolen.

6. McKeone, Thompson and Sprouse ended up in Roanoke, Va. Authorities say they moved in with Virgie Green, 44, a widow who lived in a historic section of the city. On Oct. 25, she was beaten to death. Her body was stuffed into an abandoned car on her property.

6. On Oct. 26, the three boarded a bus in Abingdon, Va., and headed to Florida.

8. They arrived in St. Petersburg Oct. 27 and spent a night at a motel on Fourth Street N. McKeone, Thompson and Sprouse went to Ybor City in Tampa the next night and partied.

9. They spent the next two nights at the Econo Inn on U.S. 19 near Nursery Road. During the day, they hung around Happy Harold's Laundry at Harn Boulevard and U.S. 19. They slept in a nearby abandoned shed Halloween night.

10. On Nov. 1, detectives say, the three went to William C. Smith's house on Belleair Road. Smith, 67, was beaten with a metal strut and left for dead. Officials say McKeone, Thompson and Sprouse took Smith's Toyota Camry and his wallet and drove directly to Amarillo, Texas.

11. Detectives say Thompson planned to kill his mother, who lives in Amarillo, because she turned him in for parole violation. But Pinellas County detectives traced the three to Amarillo and on Nov. 5, police there arrested Thompson, McKeone and Sprouse.