Prison penpals III

Am continuing to make my way through the list of prison pen pals. Haven't found the perfect correspondent yet, but there are a lot of interesting ads. A few for your edification:

Cherri Frazier (conspiracy to commit murder)

Cherri didn't write an ad, merely put her picture in. But when I Googled her, I found a record of an appeal filed for her which presents a stark look at a seamier side of life (read from page 3 on). Cherri was in Hawkins Bar, California, located on Highway 299 in Trinity County, California. She was staying with a group of transients at a campground adjacent to a trailer park, and got -- or didn't get -- involved in a plan to kill a local man accused of child molesting.

I've been on Highway 299; it's an incredibly beautiful drive. In my opinion, it's far prettier than Appalachia -- but the local culture is evidently not dissimilar. Reading the link is enough to make you never want to go camping again.

Tammitha Fuentes (complicity to murder)

I'm a voluptuous 180 lb. About 5'7", big blue eyes, med length dark brown hair. No playing mind games. Must be upfront and honest....Gardening seems to be my current hobby. Open to adventurous and different ideas.....No inmates please.

Tammitha's ad is interesting in that it reflects so many common themes. A lot of the inmates say they don't want anyone who "plays games." Many insist upon openness and honesty, although it seems few of them offer the same. And many of the female inmates don't want to hear from male inmates, even though many of them say they're looking for someone who is "nonjudgmental" about her own past. Finally, I've never heard a fat woman describe herself as fat. They are either a "big beautiful woman" or "voluptuous."

I like the way Tammitha says that gardening "seems to be" her "current hobby." Translation: her current job is working in the prison garden.

Her crime is also illuminative: her mother, April Rine, killed her baby daughter Dianne, and even though Tammitha heard her daughter's cries for help, she couldn't be bothered to "get up" to help because she was too stoned on drugs.

Tammy Holycross

Tammy's ad on Prisonpenpals.com doesn't include any copy, only her picture, but Google her and you'll find a Sacramento Bee article dated June 23, 2008. An excerpt:

He died in poverty and torment, a little boy buried in a new suit donated by a department store. A dozen years later, the 3-year-old child is still remembered by many in Sacramento and beyond. His 1996 death became a rallying cry in the community and a benchmark for Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, forced to change its policies after numerous warnings to the agency failed to protect him.

So what became of his mother?

Tammy Holycross, who pleaded guilty in 1998 to second-degree murder and torture, is serving her sentence of 23 years, four months at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. But the 40-year-old woman said recently she has a "new witness" and "new evidence" in her case, according to a letter to The Bee.

Her attorney, Eric Escamilla of Fresno, confirmed that he has newly discovered evidence but plans to appeal her case based primarily on what he called "procedural errors." The attorney said he believes there was a rush to judgment by police, and that her case should have been moved out of Sacramento because of publicity.

Even in state prison, Holycross retains some visibility. She is featured on several prisoner pen-pal Web sites, saying she is a "lonely California woman" seeking a man. Several include provocative pictures of a partially clad blonde alongside a snapshot of a more modestly dressed woman, who more closely resembles the mother photographed after Adrian's murder.

"I am looking for a mature man that's settled, likes to laugh, cuddle & be wild behind closed doors," reads one passage under her name, photo and prisoner identification number. "I had a witness that came forward that can totally clear me ... so we have plenty of time to get to know each other."

On another site - in which she describes herself as "easy-going, open-minded, fun, loving, sincere and family-oriented" - the text states that her lawyer has found "stronger evidense (sic) of a case mess-up to get me out. He said within a year we will be done!"

Holycross' relationship with men was an undercurrent in Adrian's murder investigation. At the time, the young mother reportedly told police she "had something against men," and Adrian became the scapegoat for that hatred, The Bee reported. Holycross then was a pregnant single mother of two older daughters, ages 6 and 11, and 3-year-old Adrian, each by a different father.

Only the boy was physically abused. When Adrian was rushed to the hospital on Jan. 21, 1996, his body had been brutalized. The boy, who weighed 26 pounds, was malnourished and had skull fractures, extensive bruising, numerous cigarette burns, older scarring and marks on his neck, penis and right ankle suggesting he had been tied, the forensic pathologist found.

The police detective who entered the roach-infested home in Del Paso Heights found garbage strewn about the yard and a "terrible" smell in the house that he determined to be fecal matter throughout, including in the kitchen, according to appellate court papers. In the last week of his life, the boy had become violently ill after drinking from a bowl of water he found behind a dripping, rusty toilet, the documents show.

Tammy looks like a PTA mom; she is living proof that monsters don't necessarily look like monsters. My guess is, she couldn't possibly hate males that much unless she'd been molested by her father.

Celeste Beard Johnson (murder)

After nearly a decade of working towards my Masters degree and focusing on my braille transcribing, I have decided to seek companionship from penpals. I'm interested in corresponding with intelligent people who have compassion for the wrongly convicted....

I enjoyed collecting fine art and antiques. I love education and discussing politics (or not). I have learned to be patient when dealing with life's problems. The letter is the original form of corresponding with friends and family and now sadly, it's a lost art. 

Currently, I am working on my case to have it overturned and feel confident in this happening due to the obvious corruption in my county. My D.A. made the person who is actually responsible for the crime a TRUSTY-totally amazing that someone can commit a heinous crime and get a special privilege. Then, they gave her a sweetheart deal of only 20 years. She was paroled after only 10 years behind the fences and now she is free. There is new evidence surfacing to prove these allegations. 

I am not bitter because I know that God will turn this around for His glory! Status has made me humble, and I have learned the value of true friendship, true love, and truth in justice. I am looking for honest, stable, pen pals who do not judge and enjoy a sense of humor.

It turns out that Celeste, like Tammy Holycross above, is infamous, and even has a Wikipedia page about her. Two books have been written about her crime. She's been married five times (that alone would be enough to set off an alarm). Celeste divorced her first, second, third, and fifth husbands, and had a female lover kill her fourth. (The female lover is the one she is referring to two paragraphs above.)

Celeste isn't joking about enjoying collecting. During October and November of 1999 she spent $321,000 of her husband's money, and by December 10th had spent another $249,000. In the six weeks ending March 31, 2000, she spent another $100,000. According to the prosecution, she only married Steven Beard -- the husband she had murdered -- for the money.

There are other clues to Celeste's personality. She mentions her Braille transcribing, to let us know what a good person she is. (Sociopaths will often do something "noble" in order to be able to talk about it later.)

I've seen other inmates say about letter writing that it is, "sadly, a lost art." This is a subtle form of manipulation: yes, let's bring back this lost art!

After a third paragraph betraying great bitterness, Celeste states disingenuously at the beginning of the fourth that she is not bitter.

Then Celeste tries to appeal to religious people by saying she knows "that God will turn this around for his Glory!" -- even though there are probably better ways for Him to burnish his Glory than freeing sociopaths and seeing justice undone.