The following column was taken from the January 8, 1976 edition of The News, written by Mr. Charlie Walker.

It was the kind of thing we read about in the paper or saw on TV. We shrugged our shoulders and said it couldn’t happen here. The tragedy at Prospect has brought home the realization that our little corner of the world is not what it was. The changes that have crept into our lives during the last 25 years have been subtle but dramatic. I’m not talking about how we farm with tractors instead of mules or how we cook with Crisco instead of lard. I’m talking about “we the people.” Look at the way even our vocabulary has changed. There are many four-letter words that have gone public in the last few years, but the four letter word I’m talking about doesn’t put the “X” on a theater marque or ban books in Boston. The word is fear. Franklin D. Roosevelt said in the ’30s we had nothing to fear but fear itself. In 1976 we fear the courts and the judges. Twenty-five years ago how many people in Williamsburg County bothered to lock their doors at night?
How many of you can remember when you could go anywhere in our area and leave your car door unlocked? I believe we have good law enforcement in our county and in our city—for the most part they are underpaid and overworked. So if they’re doing a good job why do we no longer leave our doors unlocked? Because the courts are spending too much time looking out for the rights of criminals and not enough time looking out for the rights of citizens. For instance, when some judge can turn a habitual criminal loose with the explanation that he comes from a broken home and has very little education and puts all the blame on John Q. Public, then turns him loose to do it all over again. With this in mind I offer the following: Once upon a time, in far-away country, there lived a little girl called Red Riding Hood. One day her mother asked her to take a basket of fruit to her grandmother who lived alone in the woods. It just so happened that the wolf was hiding in the bushes and overheard the conversation and decided to take a short cut to grandma’s house and get the goodies for himself. The wolf killed the grandmother then dressed in her nightgown and jumped into bed to wait for the little girl. When she arrived the wolf tried to grab her and the child started screaming and ran out of the cottage. A woodcutter working in the woods heard the little girl’s screams, ran into the cottage and killed the wolf with his ax, thereby saving the girl’s life. All the people of the town proclaimed the woodcutter a hero, but at the inquest several facts came out. One, the wolf had never been advised of his rights. Two, the woodcutter had made no warning swings before striking the fatal blow. Three, the civil liberties union made a point that although the act of eating the grandmother may have been in bad taste, the wolf was only “doing his thing” and therefore didn’t deserve the death penalty. The court also decided that the killing of the grandmother should be considered self-defense since she was over 30, therefore couldn’t be taken seriously because the wolf was trying to make love, not war. On the basis of these considerations, it was decided there was no valid basis for charges against the wolf. On top of that, the woodcutter was indicted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Several nights later they burned the woodcutter’s house down. One year from the date of the incident at grandmother’s, her cottage was made a shrine for the wolf who bled and died there. All of the city officials spoke at the dedication, but it was Little Red Riding Hood who gave the most touching tribute: She said that while she had been selfishly grateful for the woodcutter’s intervention she realized in retrospect that he had overreacted.
As she knelt and placed a wreath in honor of the brave wolf there wasn’t a dry eye in the whole forest. What happened at Prospect might sound like something from Edgar Allen Poe, but Prospect is not in California or New York. It’s right on our own back doorstep.
Meanwhile, who says crime doesn’t pay? Thanks to the courts and the judges it pays a lot better than being a policeman, and the hours are a lot better, also.