Wensley Clarkson - The Mother’s Day Murder: The Startling True Story of a Seductive, Murdering Wife and her Three Teenage Pawns

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Contents

Dear Reader:

The book you are about to read is the latest bestseller from St. Martins True Crime Library, the imprint The New York Times calls the leader in true crime! Each month, we offer you a fascinating account of the latest, most sensational crime that has captured the national attention. St. Martins is the publisher of perennial best-selling true crime author Jack Olsen whose SALT OF THE EARTH is the true story of one womans triumph over life-shattering violence; Joseph Wambaugh called it powerful and absorbing. Fanny Weinstein and Melinda Wilson tell the story of a beautiful honors student who was lured- into the dark world of sex for hire in THE COED CALL GIRL MURDER. St. Martins is also proud to publish critically acclaimed author Carlton Stowers, whose 1999 Edgar Award-winning TO THE LAST BREATH recounts a two-year-old girls mysterious death and the dogged investigation that led loved ones to the most unlikely murderer: her own father. In the book you now hold, THE MOTHERS DAY MURDER, veteran true crime writer Wensley Clarkson details the story of a husband and wife whose disastrous marriage would have murderous consequences.

St. Martins True Crime Library gives you the stories behind the headlines. Our authors take you right to the scene of the crime and into the minds of the most notorious murderers to show you what really makes them tick. St. Martins True Crime Library paperbacks are better than the most terrifying thriller, because its all true! The next time you want a crackling good read, make sure its got the St. Martins True Crime Library logo on the spineyoull be up all night!

Charles E. Spicer, Jr.

Senior Editor, St. Martins True Crime Library

The Key Players in

THE MOTHERS DAY MURDER

Gina Spann the seductive wife and mother who wanted her husband dead

Kevin Spann the unwitting husband shot in cold blood on Mothers Day of 1997

Larry Kelley Ginas adoring teenage lover, who would do anything for his woman

Matthew Piazzi and Gerald Horne Kevin Spanns teenage executioners, two friends Larry Kelley recruited to shoot the estranged husband

AUTHORS NOTE

The central figure in this story, Gina Spann, changed her name three times due to her propensity for marriage. In an effort to avoid confusion, throughout the book she is referred to by whichever name she was using at the time.

Some of the dialogue represented in this book was constructed from available documents, some was drawn from courtroom testimony, and some was reconstituted from the memory of participants.

The names of four individuals in this book have been changed. Those pseudonyms are Jane Walsh, Jim Huggins, Michael Dunleavy, and Nathan Blake.

To Clare, for putting up with me all these years

NOTES OF GRATITUDE

The idea of using a leaden, dispassionate word like acknowledgments for this section cannot begin to express the depth of my feelings for the many individuals who have made this book possible. I owe them my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude.

First, to my literary manager Peter Miller and my editor Charles Spicer: Without them this book would never have happened. Their support and guidance have been very much appreciated. Then there is Frank Abatemarco, whose ideas always strike a perfect chord in helping me to focus my true crime epics in the right direction.

Then there are the townsfolk of Augusta, Georgia, who welcomed me with such enthusiasm and hospitality. They include: official court reporter Cindy Mason, attorney Michael C. Garrett, Senior Assistant District Attorney Nancy B. Johnson, attorney Maureen Floyd, DA Danny Craig, police investigator Jimmy Vowell, Shanna and Amanda Quick, Jason Swallow, Jody Pierce, Debbie Mcleskey, Denis Wright, The Augusta Chronicle and Fred Wehner.

Lastly, to Mark Sandelson and John Glatt for providing all the usual facilities that have made this and so many of my other books possible.

Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin, too.

B.B. King

MOTHERS DAY, SUNDAY, MAY 11, 1997, 10:55 PMAUGUSTA, GEORGIA

INTRODUCTION

The smooth functioning of the world depends on a mothers nurturing, raising and protection of her child. But mothers are not without their ferocious side.

Moms are supposed to make us suffer. Its their Darwinian function. They give birth to us. They set the standards and expect us to meet them. They teach us the skills we need to survive in the world before they force us out of their nest.

Carl Jung believed that attitudes towards all mothers were influenced by the innate human predisposition to think that certain qualities are exclusively a mothers.

According to Jung, the human unconscious holds up mothers as archetypes with both positive and negative qualities.

Mothers possess a wide range of attributes such as solitude, wisdom, fertility, feminism, sympathy, helpfulness and mystical powers countered by darkness, secretiveness, a desire to devourand seductiveness.

While many of us see our real mother as solicitous and kind, we may also reluctantly concede that she is or was seductive. If we think she is magical and feminine, we may also believe she is secretive.

Just think of such diverse mothers as the Greek goddess Demeter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Hindu goddess Kali and the wicked stepmother of so many fairy tales. It is no surprise that we celebrate their existence.

The original Mothers Day, like all holidays, was of pagan origin and held in Asia Minor in honor of the goddess Cybele. She was known as the Great Mother, or the Mother of the Gods.

Cybele was involved in many bizarre rituals, which eventually led to her banishment by Rome.

So it was that the cult of the Great Mother was cruelly weakened even before the coming of Christ.

The poet and classicist Robert Graves saw the battle between the pagan Goddess and the Hebrew and Christian God to be fundamental to the development of Western civilization.

In his book King Jesus, Graves claimed this was proved because Jesus of Nazareth declared war on The Female or the White Goddess of Birth, Love and Death.