I just read a diary at Daily Kos about guns and gun owners that was easily revealed as highly suspect. I’m not sure if it relates a true stoty or not, but I do know many of the commenters pointed out facts that called the veracity of the diary into question. It reminded me a little of one of the many emails I’ve received from conservatives that sound too good to be true, and once investigated turned out to be fabricated out of whole cloth. In general, I tend to discount stories that can’t be proven, are sketchy on details and too neatly confirm a particular group’s bias about another group. And this comes from someone who believes strongly in gun control and greater regulation of guns.
Anecdotal stories about “gun nuts” like the one I read, do not serve to promote reasonable debate about gun regulation. What they do is inflame the passions of people on both sides of the issue, and further entrench stereotypes and prejudices held by those who oppose gun regulation, and by those who advocate for it, with respect to members of other group. We have enough real stories about gun violence in our society, stories that have been reported upon by the news media and that can be verified. We don’t need to inflame the passions of people with stories that cannot be verified.
So let me tell you about a real story of gun violence that ended in the murder of a woman by her half brother and husband that occurred in my town, a sleepy suburb of Rochester NY. It’s the story of the July 13, 2003 murder of Tabatha Bryant, and it was featured on Paula Zahn’s TV show, “On the Case With Paula Zahn,” in an episode entitled “Blood Betrayal” that aired in January 2011.
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Tabatha was married to attorney Kevin Bryant, and I knew her only because my daughter sold her girl scout cookies the year she was murdered. She seemed like a nice young woman when she bought cookies from my daughter and me. I certainly had no reason to believe she would become the victim of a murder. She lived in a modest suburban home, in a town where there had been no murders for 40 years before she was shot and stabbed by her half brother acting on her husband’s behalf.
The basic elements of the story are the stuff of film noir. Tabatha and her husband were peripherally involved in the sex trade world. Although they belonged to a local church (which initially vouched for the husband’s character in the media), numerous reports surfaced that both Tabatha and her husband frequented a strip club. Kevin Bryant also had previously represented one of his co-defendants in the case, Cassidy Green, when she established an escort service. The local newspaper also reported claims that Kevin Bryant solicited the services of prostitutes over the course of his marriage to Tabatha. In 2002, Kevin first approached Ms. Green and her boyfriend, Cyrill Winebrenner, Tabatha’s half-brother, both of whom lived at the Bryant home for a time, about a murder for hire of Tabatha. Here’s a local news media report regarding the testimony Green gave at the trial of Kevin Bryant:
Green said Kevin Bryant first approached the couple about having his wife killed while driving home from work.
She said Bryant even asked her if “$5,000 was enough to get rid of her body.’”
Green’s testimony also put Kevin Bryant at the scene of the crime. She said she and Winebrenner arrived at the Bryant home on the night of the murder armed with her rifle but found the door to be locked.
Green said she and Winebrenner then went to a gas station and called Bryant to ask him to open the door.
Green said when they returned for a second time, the door was open as Kevin Bryant promised.
She says Winebrenner then went inside and killed Tabatha Bryant.
According to testimony at trial, Kevin Bryant suspected his wife of adultery and had hired a private investigator to document her affair with a man she had met at the strip club she and Kevin frequented. Her husband’s deal with her half-brother, Cyril Winebrenner, included a payment of $5000 (given to Winebrenner by Kevin Bryant just after the murder occurred) plus half of any insurance proceeds Bryant expected to receive from the life insurance he’d taken out on his wife.
The details of the murder are gruesome. Green provided Winebrenner with her .22 rifle for the murder (I have no details about how or when Ms. Cassidy acquired her rifle). Winebrenner entered the home and he claimed he shot at Tabatha three times. One bullet was recovered from Tabatha’s body. It had entered her head through her eye, and at trial the Medical Examiner testified that the bullet was a significant contributing factor to her death. After the rifle jammed, Winebrenner stabbed Tabatha 14 times with a knife to “stop her breathing”, according to testimony by Ms. Green Winebrenner immediately departed the Bryant home with Green, and the couple fled to Iowa where they were arrested two weeks later. Kevin Bryant initially denied any involvement in Tabatha’s murder. The Sheriff’s department never believed Bryant’s story, however. Green testified against Kevin Bryant in exchange for a plea bargain: Green received 15 years on a reduced charge of 1st degree manslaughter and is eligible for parole in 2016. Bryant is serving a life term plus 99 years. It’s doubtful he will ever be eligible for parole. Winebrenner is serving a similar sentence for the crime.
Now for the anecdotal part of the story, which you are free to believe or not. My daughter not only sold girl scout cookies to Ms. Bryant, but she and her mother had attended a neighborhood party at the Bryant’s home before the murder. The death of Tabatha Bryant hit my daughter very hard. She became extremely anxious and excessively concerned that she would be killed or die. She frequently asked me why her life was so terrible, and she exhibited signs of panic attacks whenever loud noises occurred such as thunder or fireworks displays. She had numerous panic attacks during the ages of 7 – 14 or so, and while she often would not, or could not, identify why she was so upset, when she did, it invariably related to her fear of being killed by “robbers” or “murderers” (her words). To this day she is afraid to sleep at night in a room where the curtains are not shut, and does not like being left alone in a room at night by herself, even when other family members are in the house. Eventually she was prescribed Prozac for her anxiety by her doctor at the recommendation of her therapist, a clinical psychologist, who my daughter began seeing shortly after Ms. Bryant’s murder for her anxiety and for ADHD. My daughter is very anti-gun, and the fact that my conservative 80-year-old parents and sister and brother-in-law all bought handguns after 2008 “for protection” bothers her a great deal.
Even today, I’m hesitant to tell her about the recent high profile gun killings that have occurred over last few years, though she invariably hears about them from friends. The Christmas Eve ambush shooting of four firefighters in Webster, NY, another Rochester suburb, disturbed her greatly, especially since her boyfriend is interested in becoming a firefighter, and belongs to a junior firefighter program.
Of course there are numerous gun murders of people living in poor neighborhoods that get little if any media attention, and no doubt thousands of children who have been traumatized far worse than my daughter as a result of witnessing gun violence or having lost a family member to gun violence. Unfortunately, I do not know their stories. I can, however, only tell the story of my daughter’s reaction to the murder of someone she knew, a murder that was well documented by both local and national media. I can’t tell you that my daughter’s anxiety issues are solely related to Tabatha Bryant’s murder, but it certainly didn’t help.
Well, so much for my anecdote. It’s not a very engaging or particularly amusing story, but I swear it is true. As I said, believe it or not, as you like. The murder of Ms. Bryant, however is quite well documented.
Funny anecdotal diaries about “gunaholics” or “gun nuts” relating stories of their obsession with guns and the alleged “crazy” incidents in which they supposedly engage, may attract a lot of attention, but they serve little purpose. They may ring true to you if you support gun regulation, banning handguns and assault weapons, or even repealing the 2nd Amendment. However, please, in the future, think before recommending them, especially if they confirm your own biases about the people who own guns. The reported and verified stories about gun shootings that occur in our country everyday, such as the one I recounted about Tabatha Bryant, are more than enough to support the reasonable regulations of guns. There’s no need to promote stories that seem too good to be true.
