Charmin' Billy

At last it was over. And at last Suzanne has told her horrible story, sitting just a few feet from the face of her nightmares.

Tingle has just one more image he wants to leave with the judges. Neal had driven Suzanne past the townhouse on that first day after they left West Chenango Drive. "We had gone by it...and he said we may have to go back inside just this once," she says. "I just begged him again and asked if he would please not make me go back into that house."

Life of the party: "Wild Bill Cody" Neal.

Rebecca Holderton, Candace Walters and Angela Fite all made fatal mistakes: They believed William Neal.

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Previous Westword articles

"Judging the Judge,"
September 30, 1999
After a year on the Jefferson County bench, Brooke Jackson knows it can be a real hot seat.
By Steve Jackson

"Judgment Day,"
May 6, 1999
The state's first death-penalty panel spares the life of Robert Riggan.

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"Can you tell us what was going through your mind when you drove by there?"

"It was scary because, I mean, there wasn't anybody there...The police weren't there at that time, and each time he drove by it, I was very afraid that I was going to have to go back inside, and I didn't want to see what was inside again...and I was afraid if I went back inside that I wouldn't come back out."

As she speaks, Tingle shuffles through his photographs. Finding the one he seeks, he places it on the overhead so that it appears on monitors around the courtroom. It's a photograph of a beautiful, smiling young woman.

"Who is that?" Tingle asks.

"That's Angie," she answers softly.

The prosecution's turn ends. Judge Woodford asks Neal if he has any questions. Suzanne freezes. If he chooses to question her, she will have to look at him.

"Your honor, I do not," Neal says.

Next week: The judges' decision.