| 8/4/2009 10:43:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Edward Wayne Edwards |
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'Metamorphosis of a criminal'
Hack-Drew murder suspect told of rocky past
By James Debilzen
Union staff writer
The man accused of killing two Jefferson County teens nearly three decades ago has a storied history that includes being an author, a drifter, a motivational speaker and listed on the FBI's Ten Most-Wanted List.
Edward Wayne Edwards, 76, was taken into custody Thursday in Louisville, Ky., in connection with the August 1980 murders of Timothy Hack of Hebron and Kelly Drew of Fort Atkinson. He pleaded not guilty Saturday to two charges of first-degree murder and waived extradition on Monday in Jefferson County District Court in Kentucky.
The Daily Jefferson County Union on Friday revealed that Edwards was on the FBI's Ten Most-Wanted list for two months during the early 1960s. Since then, new details on his background, though sketchy at times, have come forward from law enforcement, an autobiography and a 1971 newspaper interview.
Detective Chad Garcia of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department in Wisconsin said investigators in the case have gleaned some background information on Edwards from a book he reportedly wrote about himself. The department came into contact with the book through "Internet research," Garcia said.
The 1972 autobiography, titled "Metamorphosis of a Criminal," follows Edwards from his rough childhood through a life of crime that resulted in prison.
"You don't know how much of it is true," Garcia said, however.
Detective Sgt. Larry Lee, Garcia's supervisor, also was cautious about some of the book's material.
"You've got to remember, we don't know if this was true or if it was just fiction," Lee said. "He had plenty of time to do it when he was in prison or right when he got out. I don't know when he did it. He had a lot of time to think about it, let's put it that way."
Lee said that while the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is interested in Edwards' background, it is more interested in the criminal aspects of his life.
"We were interested in some of the criminal stuff he was involved in," Lee said. "We know he was a suspect in a homicide out west and we know he escaped from being in custody and he spent prison time, stuff you get off criminal history. But as far as his life goes, what he actually did, we got that out of the book."
Edwards also talked about his life story at a local Youth Development Center in Pennsylvania to "dissuade the young men from following his past examples," according to an article dated April 6, 1971, in the New Castle (Pennsylvania) News.
According to the article by reporter Mike Matis, Edwards was paroled in 1967 and he was making a living "primarily by television and radio appearances and speaking tours conducted for the purpose of relating his encounters with federal and state penal systems and giving his evaluations of why they are failing to rehabilitate inmates."
The article stated that a recording Edwards had made on the subject was set for release about two weeks later and a book, "written in collaboration with a University of Akron associate professor, should be published before the end of the year."
Among his admitted crimes, Edwards said in the article he had stolen cars, forged checks, committed burglaries and at least 43 armed robberies, including banks.
"The pleasant-speaking Edwards said he has committed just about all crimes 'except those of violence (murder) and sex,'" the Matis article stated.
Edwards made the FBI's Ten Most-Wanted list on Nov. 10, 1961, for suspicion of a double murder in Portland, Ore.
The Wisconsin State Journal, referring to an article in the now-defunct (Portland) Oregon Journal, said Edwards escaped from jail while awaiting questioning for the murders.
Edwards was listed on a website for the Portland division of the FBI as having been on the Top Ten List for "unlawful flight to avoid confinement." He was captured in Atlanta, Ga., on Jan. 20, 1962.
Beth Anne Steele, a public affairs specialist at the FBI's Portland division, told the Daily Union her office had no additional records of Edwards, which is not uncommon for an incident that occurred nearly 50 years ago.
"I had one of our records people here check and we have been unable to find any of the old files that may have been here a long time ago," Steele said. "It's possible they were destroyed or they were moved to a long-term archive site. I just don't even have any record that we had a file at any point, which is not unusual seeing that it came from the 1960s."
A spokesperson at the FBI's headquarters in Washington D.C. only would confirm that Edwards was on the Ten Most-Wanted list from Nov. 10, 1961, to Jan. 20, 1962.
"The only thing the FBI is stating at this time is that Edward Wayne Edwards was, indeed, on the FBI's Ten Most-Wanted Fugitives list," the spokesperson said, declining to give her name. "That's all the information we're releasing at this point."
As a child, the book indicates, Edwards was moved around to various reformatory institutions, where he would escape, get caught and be brought back, Garcia said.
"As a teenager, he became involved with women and got great enjoyment out of that," Garcia said. "He especially liked brunettes and younger women and women he could control or dominate."
Edwards continued throughout his life holding a multitude of jobs and moving frequently, Garcia said.
His work history included being a psychiatrist in Minnesota, according to the New Castle News, where he "'had a pretty good business' with about 21 regular patients, some of whom went broke seeing him."
Garcia also said Edwards joined the Marine Corps for a very brief stint at the age of 17, but was not allowed to go overseas because of his age. The detective said Edwards then deserted the military.
"He continued to wear the Marine Corps uniform, even though he was no longer in the service, and got busted for that at some point," Garcia said.
The New Castle News article said that by age 37, Edwards had spent a total of 16 years of his life behind bars. At the time of the article and the publication of the book, however, Edwards said he had changed for the better.
"He met his wife in the mid '60s and had five kids from late '60s to the mid '70s," Garcia said. "He wrote the book in 1972 and began traveling to various universities and preaching to them about staying out of prison and being a good person and a good father."
The State Journal also reported that Edwards was a guest on the 1970s television game show "To Tell the Truth."
What is unclear, however, is what Edwards did after he began speaking around the country and published his book.
At the time of the Hack-Drew murders in 1980, Edwards was working as a handyman at the Concord House and the adjacent Concord Center Campground.
Edwards and his family moved to Wisconsin in early July 1980 and initially resided at the campground. From there, they reportedly moved to a residence located halfway between the Concord House and the Town of Ixonia location where the bodies of Drew and Hack were found.
"I think he's pretty much always been a drifter," Garcia said. "He was a union carpenter from what he's told me and from what I've learned. He picked up some trades when he was in prison for a longer stint."
Garcia said Edwards had a fifth- or sixth-grade education, but got his general education diploma and picked up some college courses while learning trades in prison. His main focus was carpentry.
"When he left here, he went to Pennsylvania and got a union job," Garcia said.
(A related story appears in today's print edition of the Daily Jefferson County Union).
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