Tantor Media. - Death Trap

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I need to thank someone who has been a major part of my career, pushing it forward behind the scenes, talking me up to booksellers and truly promoting the idea that the work I do is worthy of an audience. Doug Mendini, the sales manager at Kensington Publishing Corporation, has worked doggedly promoting me as an author and a journalist, screaming from the sidelines that my books are much more than your average quickie true-crime pulp paperback. Doug is a generous human being with his time and truly believes in the books he works so hard to get out to the buying public.

Court reporters Ann Rushing and Kelly Alexander were helpful. Birmingham News reporter Carol Robinson made a few things much easier for me. Carol is one of those rare, honest-to-goodness, old-school reporters writing stories simply because she loves the work. I also appreciate the documents Carol sent me and her insight into the daily nuances of Jessicas trial.

The Bates family and Tom Klugh were tremendous. I am grateful for their courage and also the trust they put in me to share those memories of Alan and Terra, along with those anecdotes that added so much to the narrative.

Jupiter Entertainment producer Donna Dudek was instrumental in helping me gather documents, photos and other research. Donna is one of the most competent and thorough researchers/television producers I have ever met. I cannot thank Donna enough for all the help she has given me throughout the years.

Captain Greg Rector, of the Hoover PD, was especially helpful in setting up interviews and bridging the gap between myself and some of the investigators involved in this case. I owe Hoover PD chief Nic Derzis a special consideration for allowing his fine officers to chat with me about the case. Laura Brignac was extremely helpful. Additionally, I want to thank GBI investigator Kimberly Williams, prosecutor Roger Brown and GBI special agent Tom Davis Jr. Of course, every investigator on this case was helpful, even if I didnt interview him or her. This was one of those investigations that turned out to be a true team effort in every sense of the word. It took several law enforcement agencies to put together a casein record timeagainst Jessica and Jeff McCord. That takes professionalism, tenacity, experience. These are fine men and women. They all deserve my respect and admiration.

Ive thanked the usual suspects in my previous books. You all know who you are. Without you, I could not do this.

April, Mathew, Jordon, Regina.

I cannot write a book without thanking my readers, who continue to come back book after book. The letters and e-mails I receive are very important to me. I treasure each one of them. Every commentgood, bad or indifferentis taken into account as I approach each book. I am extremely grateful for every reader. I do this year after year because you keep asking me to do so. I have the best fans in the business!

Other books by M. William Phelps

PERFECT POISON

LETHAL GUARDIAN

EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE

SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE

MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND

BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME

IF LOOKS COULD KILL

ILL BE WATCHING YOU

DEADLY SECRETS

CRUEL DEATH

FAILURES OF THE PRESIDENTS

NATHAN HALE:
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF
AMERICAS FIRST SPY

THE DEVILS ROOMING HOUSE:
THE TRUE STORY OF AMERICAS DEADLIEST
FEMALE SERIAL KILLER

EPILOGUE

Jeff McCord seemed to express a bit of repentance for his crimes. Yet, in writing to me, Jeffs words of remorse sounded more self-serving than sorrowful. In fact, I sensed a narcissistic tone in Jeffs syntax, and thought this was probably one of the reasons why he and Jessica had gotten along so well and meshed together so effortlessly when it came time to commit murder. That is, when you come down to it, Jeff McCordno matter what he says nownever once voiced any opposition to Jessicas plan. We could even say that, in many ways, Jeff fueled Jessicas desire to kill.

There is NO acceptable reason for my doing what I did to put myself where I am, Jeff wrote to me in February 2009. [There is an] ... agony on those who have suffered and continue to do so as a result of my actions. What I did was WRONG! I very much regret my actions and the problems arising from them.

Im unclear if Jeff is sorry for killing two people, or for getting caught.

I readily admit, he continued, that I allowed myself to be unduly influenced by Jessica. Also, I allowed myself to be convinced that my viable options were limited to the one I chose. I allowed myself to become isolated. None of that in any way excuses my reprehensible course of action.

Jeff never addressed Terra or Alan by name.

Seeing that he was at least responsible enough to answer my requests for interviews and communicate with me, I asked Jeff why he would not want to sit down and tell me his complete story. Get it all out there. You know, his version of the marriage from the inside. Truly explain to my readers how Jessica had managed to manipulate him into shooting two human beings eight times while they sat in his house.

Jeff had taken an oath to protect and to serve. His job was to help people. Save people. Prevent crime. He had expressed a longing, at one time, to help children. How had the tables turned on him in such a violent manner? Where did everything go wrong?

Jeffs attitude baffled me. I told him he had nothing to lose at this point. His appeal was denied. He was not getting out of prison for, at the least, twenty-five years.

Many convicted murderers hold on to the thinnest thread of hopethinking that someday some hotshot, enthusiastic young lawyer will take their case and spring them on a technicality or a glitch in the trial, thus rescuing them from the miserable life of prison. With that in mind, I thought Jeff would see things differently because he had been a cop. He knows the law. He understands how the system works. Opening up, giving me the answers to those hard questions, could only help Jeff.

But he refused, and sent me this, instead:

I obviously should have gone about things far differently than I did. I exercised poor judgment and made a plethora of poor and bad decisions. I also readily concede that I could have and should have taken steps to prevent things or to prevent the situation I was in to deteriorate to the point it did. With all of that said... I still made the choices I made.

Then, in what can be construed as a bizarre choice of words, Jeff added:

Again, I do not regret my actions and am sorry for the adversive [sic] impact they had and continue to have on the Bates, the Klughs, my former step-daughters, my children, my family, Jessicas family, the few friends I have at this point, as well as the other people involved with or connected to my case in some way. What I did is most likely inexplicable and inexcusable at least where most people are concerned.

Most people? Most likely? The guy did not regret his actions? What was Jeff McCord saying to us here?

Jeff McCord is a strange human being. Jeff was a lot smarter on paper than his behavior would lead you to believe. Something, somewhere, went wrong for Jeff. What, exactly, only Jeff McCord knows.

Jessica is another story. We can see that some of her behaviors were hardwired into her fragile psyche as a child. It might seem to an outside observer that Jessica McCord was a sociopath. She fits rather perfectly into about 90 percent of the sociopathic profile Dr. Robert Hare and Dr. Hervey Cleckley designed many years ago. Cleckley outlined sixteen behaviors on a checklist of sociopathic behavior, including unreliability, insincerity, suicidal threats and a host of other behaviors and attitudes that seemed to fit Jessica McCord quite closely.