Epidemic of the Living Dead by John Russo

Author:John Russo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

On the TV in her office at the institute, Dr. Traeger watched intently as a major media event unfolded. Kelly Ann Garfield, the infamous “Pickax Killer” from Texas, was about to be executed. A rowdy crowd was gathered outside the prison walls. An anti-death-penalty gospel singer was belting out “Amazing Grace,” while a pro-death-penalty group was chanting, “KILL THE BITCH! KILL THE BITCH!”

Dr. Traeger had followed Kelly Ann’s story from the moment she was arrested and all through the trial, as much as she could, while still carrying out her daily responsibilities at the institute and at home with her daughter. In a jealous, vindictive rage fueled by drugs, Kelly Ann had used a pickax to chop up her exboyfriend and the girl he was in bed with, and had left the vicious weapon buried in the other girl’s chest. At trial, Kelly Ann boasted that each time she penetrated flesh and bone with her heavy weapon, she had an orgasm.

But in prison she claimed she had been born again. She said she was no longer the evil person that she used to be. She was now, in the eyes of many, a saint, a Joan of Arc, who had undergone a divine transformation. Evangelical ministers, movie stars, and even the pope advocated for her. They said that she had been touched by the hand of God and should not now be executed, which would be a travesty. God had chosen her for a divine mission, to save the souls of other death row prisoners by blessing them, hearing their sins, and convincing them to accept Jesus. But the governor of Texas had decided to let God be her final judge, and he allowed her execution to go forward. This was after fourteen years of appeals and stays granted by what Dr. Traeger felt was a stodgy, convolutedly perverse legal system.

She believed in the death penalty and agreed with the governor, and not because she coveted Kelly Ann for her experiments. She had never bought into the preposterous claim that the infamous “Pickax Killer” was no longer the same person who committed those heinous murders. She was the same person! Her views may have changed, her personality may have changed, but that did not mean that she should evade responsibility for her past actions. If she were truly enlightened, truly remorseful, she should have willingly gone to her own death. Dr. Traeger would have more strongly believed in the “new” Kelly Ann if she had instructed her lawyers to end her appeals and speed up her execution. Instead she became a centerpiece for the endless debate over capital punishment and whether or not it was a deterrent.

Those who would excuse her and commute her sentence had tirelessly pointed out that she was led into a life of prostitution and drug addiction at the tender age of eleven, and by her own mother. This was, of course, a sad and woeful mitigating factor that was considered with a certain amount

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