WHO IS THE BOY TROY TIDWELL KILLED?

Warning Strong Sexual Content


“THE SODA POP”

(The story that started the missing boy's death investigation)

“It was after dark when the black haired, one arm white man came to get me at my cottage. I was pulled from my bed, handcuffed behind my back and told to walk out to and get into the back seat of an old Florida state car. I was instructed to lie on my stomach with my head facing the driver’s back seat door with my legs and feet facing the passenger’s side of the vehicle. My hands and feet were handcuffed together behind my back causing my seventeen-year-old body to arch backwards as if it were an Indian bow. At first I was so scared that the cuffing did not seem to bother me, but after several minutes the strain in my leg and arm muscles began to tighten and contract. The pain in my low back was almost unbearable but I knew better than to make a “peep.” The day before several boys had run away from the Industrial reform school and after captured they told Director R.W. Hatton that I had told them to cut up their wool blankets and wrap the pieces around their legs, before putting their pants on, that way the water-moccasin snakes couldn’t bite through the thick blanket material as they ran through the swampy areas of North Florida. I knew without question what had happened and that I was being taken to solitary confinement (lock-up) for as long as thirty days.

After traveling for only several minutes the car came to a sudden stop causing me to slide off the rear seat.

“Get your ass back up on that damn seat young man,” screamed Mr. Tidwell, in an extremely harsh tone.

Twisting and turning. I used every bit of strength I could muster to make my way back up onto the seat. My upper body made its way onto the seat but I couldn’t get my legs onto the seat without my body falling back onto the floorboard. I lay motionless, my feet pressed against the front passenger seat hoping that the man would think I had followed and accomplished his direction. After he exited the car I began pushing against the front seat until I had made my way back into my original position.

‘Oh my God, I’m turned around backwards,’ I thought.

Knowing that there were severe consequences for not following Mr. Tidwell’s orders; in a state of fear and panic I began trying and turn myself back around to where my feet were facing the passenger back door. Knowing that I was being taken to lockup up on the hill, I knew we could not possibly have reached the lock-up building in that short period of time. As I continued to struggle I heard someone yelling and then a scuffle ensued. All at once the back door swung open and another boy was thrown inside. He too had his arms cuffed behind him and within minutes his arms and feet were also handcuffed together. The entire time the boy was yelling and cursing at Mr. Tidwell. As the car began to slowly roll forward Tidwell and the boy continued to argue and curse one another.

All at once Tidwell slammed on the brakes and the car came to a sudden halt. Tidwell turned around and screamed, “So you think you’re a tough guy do you?” The screaming, yelling and cursing continued for two or three minutes before Tidwell turned back around and began driving.

We must have driven fifteen to twenty minutes before the car finally came to a stop; much longer than it should have taken to make it to “lock-up.” Though the campus was some 1400 acres, we boys knew exactly how long it took to travel from one building to another or between the various work areas. Something was not right and I knew it. I wanted to tell the boy to please stop arguing with the one arm man but I was just too afraid to speak. We “incorrigible kids” had learned very early on that the term “see no evil-speak no evil and hear no evil” had a very strong meaning at the school and any violation of the rules (by the staff) must never be seen, heard or reported. If so, one’s young body might simply disappear, late at night, and never be seen ever again.

Tidwell sat motionless in the front seat. All I could hear was the sound of rustling papers and the other boy somewhat whimpering and cursing. Mr. Tidwell opened his door, walked to the back and opened the door where the boy was laying. Once again the two of them began to curse and scream at one another. I looked over my shoulder when I heard the boy spit. I cringed when I saw Tidwell wiping the spit from his face in the light of the full moon. He lowered his hand and just stood there not saying a word. Suddenly, he reached in, grabbed the boy by his shirt, jerked him out of the car and threw him to the ground. The boy was screaming, every word a curse word. Trying my best to watch them, my legs slipped off the seat. I struggled and finally managed to get back up on the seat, my head now facing the two of them on the driver’s side of the car. Tidwell reached down and grabbed the boy by the handcuffs and jerked as hard as he could, causing the boy to scream out in pain. He un-cuffed the boy’s hands from his feet and jerked him to a standing position. Swinging as hard as he could, he hit the boy (with his right hand) so hard that the boy fell sideways; his head slammed full force into the side of the vehicle. Instantly, everything went silent except Tidwell breathing. I waited for the boy to begin cursing but there was no sound at all. All remained silent except for the thousands of crickets and an occasional bull frog. ‘Maybe the boy finally learned his lesson and was remaining still and quiet,’ I thought.

I lay perfectly still waiting to see what might happen next. The next thing I knew the man walked around the car opened the door and began unlocking my handcuffs from my ankle chains. I was instructed to get out of the car and hop to the back of the vehicle. Only being able to take baby-steps, he jerked me by the shirt forcing me to the back of the vehicle where he opened the trunk.

“DAMN!” he yelled in disgust, as he hit the back of the car with his fist. Still breathing really hard, he bent forward and held onto the vehicle with his one arm. We both stood there looking at the lifeless body on the ground.

“Is he dead Mr. Tidwell?”

“Shut your damn mouth,” he screamed.

I could tell that Tidwell was scared. I had never seen him scared before. He was a rough, tough mean man but never did I ever see him scared of anything or anyone. There was a large hinge bolt which held the door onto the vehicle. I think the side of the boy’s head hit the bolt when Tidwell knocked him into the car. I didn’t see any blood but I knew the boy was deader than a doornail.

“Don’t you say one damn word, do you understand me boy? You get down on the ground and lay flat on your belly,” he demanded. He ordered me to stay quiet and remain totally flat on the ground. I watched his feet beneath the automobile as he walked toward an old tin building. Several minutes later he returned with a shovel in his right hand. I was directed to dig a grave about twenty yards off the road. I immediately began digging. Once in a while I would look up at Mr. Tidwell who was constantly staring at me. I dug the hole until it was about up to my knees and then I stopped.

“Twice as deep,” he ordered.

I knew right then and there he was not going to leave any witnesses.

“Mr. Tidwell, have you ever seen the movie “Cool Hand Luke?”

He didn’t respond.

As I continued to dig, I whispered loudly, “You remind me of Cool Hand Luke, Mr. Tidwell. You’re a big and strong man just like Mr. Luke;”

“I was a good boy myself when I first came to work here; a very good boy. You know what that means? But that’s all changed now,” Tidwell said, in a slow, somber drawn out tone of voice.

“My daddy always beat me real bad Mr. Tidwell, real black and blue too. He tried to smother me and my brother and he shot my mama one time too. I wanted to be strong like Cool Hand Luke but I never could do it. The beatings just hurt too badly. Maybe I could be strong one day just like you Mr. Tidwell. That’s what I want to be one day; to be big and strong just like you.”

Tidwell stood not saying a word.

“I won’t say nothin’ about what happened here, really I won’t Mr. Tidwell.”

“I can’t take that chance son,” he replied.

When I looked up at his face, because of the bright moonlight, I could see tears running down Tidwell’s cheeks. But again, he said nothing.

I looked back down and began to dig. My body began to shake and tremble uncontrollably. I was so scared that I couldn’t even start crying. I tried to think but my mind kept running in a never-ending circle of confusion. ‘Could he kill me? Would he really kill me? Why did he start crying? Mr. Tidwell never cries, ‘cause he’s real strong just like in the movie Cool Hand Luke.’

There was one way for me to save myself. It was real, real bad but not as bad as havin’ to die. I stopped digging, looked directly up at Mr. Tidwell and said, “Mr. Tidwell, please don’t hurt me. I’ll suck your dick really, really good if you don’t hurt me and I’ll do it good to.”

Half a smile came to his face as he pressed his lips together as if he were thinking; but all he did was shake his head “no” as if in a state of disgust. I thought about dropping the shovel and running out into the woods, but I knew that the gators or snakes would get me just like the other boys who ran away and were never heard from again.

When the hole was about up to my waist, Mr. Tidwell ordered me stop digging. I watched as he walked over to the boy, grabbed him by his handcuffed arms and drug him to the waiting hole. I kept saying over and over, “I won’t tell anyone Mr. Tidwell, really I won’t Mr. Tidwell.” He acted as if I were not even there. With one arm he flung the boy’s body into the hole as if it had no weight to it whatsoever. The body landed on me and I fell to the bottom of the damp hole and began crying.

After the boy was thrown into the hole, I was instructed to cover him with dirt. When the hole was about half full, I stopped and looked at the one arm man.

“Keep filling,” he instructed.

After completely filling the hole I began patting down the soil so it wouldn’t leave a big hump.

“Nobody’ll ever find him Mr. Tidwell. No way, not way out here.”

“I’m going to take you to lock-up and you had best keep your damn mouth shut. You keep that mouth of yours shut and every once in a while I’ll take you to town and buy you a soda pop.”

“I gave you my word Mr. Tidwell and I won’t ever go back on that. Really I won’t.”

I knew that I had just saved my own ass from a certain death. To this day I don’t know what it was that touched the heart of one evil and vile man like Troy Tidwell.


Andrew Puel conversation with Rose Davis of FDLE



May 18, 2011

Andrew Puel called Inspector Rose Davis of the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement.

I called Inspector Rose Davis of the FDLE to speak to her about the Louis Luv recordings that I had sent to FBI Agent Steve Grant. Two weeks earlier Agent Grant had left a message on my cell phone telling me that he had turned over to the FDLE all the information I had sent to him.

Inspector Davis expressed skepticism about the truthfulness of Louis Luv’s statements. She said when the FDLE contacted Louis; he became irate and told them not to contact him again. She also mentioned that there was talk of a book deal between Roger Kiser and Louis Luv. I told Mrs. Davis that Louis had already told Roger several times that he would not come forward with this information. Louis had mentioned to Roger that they should write a book. Roger didn’t want to do it but I talked him into doing it because I thought it would be good to have Louis’ statements about the killing of a boy in writing. Louis’ writing was so laborious and Roger Kiser is not exactly the most patient person on the planet, so the whole project fell apart in a matter of weeks. Somehow in Inspector Davis’ mind this talk of writing a book cast doubt on the truthfulness of Louis Luv.

Rose Davis asked me, “ How can you be sure that Louis isn’t a con man out to make money?” I told her Louis seemed to already have money. The inspector said, “So he claims.”

I asked her several times if there was a list of the names of boys who ran away from the school who were never caught and returned to the school. She said how would that help. They could have got away and changed their names. I told her if I had those names that I would spend my time investigating those names. Inspector Davis said Florida law prohibits the release of juvenile’s names. I told her that law makes it very difficult for an independent investigator to find out the truth.

Rose Davis also said it wasn’t believable that Mr. Tidwell would kill a boy and then leave Louis alive to be a witness against him. I mentioned that in 1980 boys were leg shackled and hand cuffed and it would have been hard for Mr. Tidwell to explain that two boys ran away after being unshackled. Louis and the other boy were being taken to detention and that is where the boys would have been unshackled. By keeping Louis alive and convincing him to tell that the other boy had run away made Tidwell’s story somewhat believable.

Inspector Davis said, why wouldn’t Mr. Tidwell get Louis to say the boy attacked him and then Tidwell hit him and killed him in self defense. She said the saw mill area was a very open area at that time and it didn’t seem logical to bury a body in that area. It would have made more sense to take the body off the school grounds so nobody would find a fresh dug grave.

Mr. Tidwell had already had these two boys in his custody for over 45 minutes. Tidwell had to act very quickly and he was very upset and probably not thinking logically. On the audio recordings Louis said Tidwell was scared and he had never seen him scared before. The point Inspector Davis made about the saw mill area being a very open area at that time doesn’t make sense to me. We sent a 1959 photograph of the saw mill to FBI Agent Steve Grant and it clearly shows a forest right behind the saw mill. If you look at the saw mill on Google Earth today there is a forest right behind the saw mill. There is also a dirt road that goes from the saw mill to the grave yard. This whole area is wooded. There is always the possibility that Louis thought that the barn was the saw mill. The barn is located in the middle of the 1400 acre school grounds. We have to remember that Louis was a 15 year old kid who had just witnessed a murder. If he made a mistake about what the function of the building was, is that a good reason for the state to not look into these very serious allegations.

Rose Davis said the investigation was closed because the audio recordings weren’t clear and the fact that Louis Luv would not come forward.

We sent three audio recordings to the FBI and only one of the recordings was not clear and on the one that was not clear you could still make out enough of the conversation to conclude that a murder had been committed. The psychological trauma Louis experienced was very severe and Louis had tried his hardest to forget it. Louis even says on one of the recordings, when he thinks about the events that occurred at the Dozier School it would ruin his whole day. I mentioned to Inspector Davis that maybe the reason Louis would not come forward was because he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. She said, “Well I’m sure he is.” Through out this whole conversation Inspector Davis sounded annoyed and she was very dismissive of the things that I would bring up.

When I brought up about another missing boy that was on recording number three (which was very clear) she acted like she hadn’t even heard it. I told her about Louis getting up one night to use the bathroom and catching his cottage father, Mr. Robinson making a Mexican kid performs oral sex on him. Mr. Robinson slapped Louis in the face and sent the Mexican kid back to bed. The cottage father then hog tied Louis and started to electrocute him with a cut off extension cord. During the course of the torture all of Louis’ teeth got broken.

One night Mr. Robinson took that boy out of the dorm to sexually abuse him, but something went wrong. Mr. Robinson came back into the dorm without the boy and he got two of the bullies to go with him. The cottage father locked the doors into the dorm. He then backed his car up to the rear door and then he drove away. The next morning he told the boys in the cottage that the kid had run away.

I asked Inspector Davis if it would be possible to find out which cottage Amos Robinson was the supervisor of and to find out if any boys ran away from that cottage in 1980. The inspector didn’t even respond to this question, like it was the most outlandish thing she had ever heard.

Very early in the conversation Inspector Davis tried to intimidate me by telling me that by recording Louis Luv we had broken the law. I told her the recordings were made in Georgia where it was legal to do it. This seemed to anger her and she said, well I don’t know Georgia law but it still wasn’t the right thing to do. I told Rose that Roger and I had agonized on making those recordings. Louis Luv is a “Whitehouse Boy” and his story is certainly one of the most horrendous stories we had ever heard, but Louis had already told Roger several times that he would not come forward with this information. So we were left with the dilemma of weighing Louis’ rights with those of the boy that Louis was forced to bury. Another thing was if the FDLE didn’t believe the story with the recordings, they sure as hell wouldn’t have believed it without them.

One thing she said that really didn’t make any sense was, even if you found a body out there how could you prove who it was. I told her I thought it would corroborate what Louis had said if the body was found near the saw mill and that we should look for a boy who had run away from the Dozier School in 1980 and who had never been caught and returned to the school.

I asked her if Louis Luv could be compelled to repeat his allegations to a grand jury. She said she didn’t think any judge would convene a grand jury on those recordings.

One thing she said that I was astonished about was her statement; we don’t even know if Louis Luv is his real name. So neither the FBI nor the FDLE ever established what Louis Luv’s real name is. I thought they would have had the capability to at least establish Louis Luv’s real name.

I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was irritated and frustrated by the questions I was asking. I apologized to her at one point because I realized my voice had the same irritation in it as hers did. I told her I believed Louis Luv was telling the truth and that I had been haunted by that story ever since I heard it. I told her I was going to try to find that boy’s body and give him a decent Christian burial if it took me the rest of my life.

I told Inspector Davis that Louis had told Roger the story about the killing several times and always told the story the same way each time.

I mentioned to Rose that every reform school employee that Louis had mentioned had been checked out in the Marianna City Directory. Every name he mentioned checked with the year 1980. Rose said, I’m sure he was at Dozier. Inspector Davis said a second time it didn’t make sense for Tidwell to let Louis live to be a witness against him. I said I believed Mr. Tidwell accidentally killed the boy, but the premeditated murder of Louis would have been a completely different thing.

Out of complete frustration I said, I didn’t think the state of Florida wanted to find any bodies on the school’s grounds.

Rose blew that off by saying that Dozier had been so badly tarnished already that finding some bodies out there wouldn’t make that much more of an impact. I thought her response was not very honest.

I asked her if it would be possible if we (The Whitehouse Boys Organization) could come onto the grounds with ground penetrating radar and search for the body of the boy that Louis buried. She said, well we can’t let people onto an active prison site. I told her the north side of the campus where the saw mill is located had been abandoned years ago as a prison. She said she thought the school board was leasing the property from the state and we would have to get their permission to conduct a search. I told her I thought Jackson County hated the Whitehouse Boys for tarnishing the image of their county and they would never allow a search of those grounds for any bodies.

Inspector Davis said the bones of the bodies may have completely dissolved by now. I told her about a documentary I had saw on the National Geographic Channel about the Black Death in London in the fifteenth century. The bodies were put in pits and covered over with dirt. Whole skeletons were being exhumed from those graves. That was over 500 years ago and the grave we’re looking for is only 30 years old. Rose said some soils will preserve bones and some soils would not. She said you wouldn’t see a X-ray image with ground penetrating radar.

I realized we were going in circles. I asked her if we could convince Louis Luv to come forward with the information about the killing would the FDLE be willing to reopen the investigation. She said we will certainly talk with him. I thanked her for talking with me and we ended our conversation.












QUESTION/STATEMENT: On page two of the above redacted document (Louis Luv-Micro-Cassette Recording Transcript #1) from the FDLE, Inspector Rose Davis states that the audio recording titled, “Mr. X Micro Tidwell Killing” “is of extremely poor quality to the extent that the majority is unintelligible and that there was nothing of reasonable value to further investigate”. The transcript (below) is a transcriped copy of that recording. We will let the reader(s) decide if the Florida Department of Law Enforcement did or did not do their duties correctly as was ordered by Governor Charlie Crist.


Louis Luv-(Micro-Cassette Recording Transcript #1)

Louis: He was already making advances talking about his dick. (Several inaudible paragraphs) …already knew what to do. …somewhere back in the late fifties and he was about twenty-nine.

Roger: Yea, that was in 1980 right.

Louis: 1980 yea. In 1980, and Tidwell was already 51 or 52 years old, if not a little older. (Many inaudible sentences)…once we get in the fuckin’ car and already going up, driving up the hill to drive to solitary confinement in the car up the hill. I thought they were going to get into a fight. He was a bad guy.

(Several inaudible paragraphs).

Roger: Were you in solitary confinement because that guy hit his head into the car?

Louis: (Several inaudible paragraphs)

Roger: Yea.

Louis: (Several inaudible paragraphs)

Roger: Mr. Clark was the one arm black guy.

Louis: Right.

(Several inaudible paragraphs)

Roger: When Tidwell hit that boy’s head into the car, do you have any idea where that was? Was that by the saw mill?

Louis: (inaudible paragraphs) That was by the saw mill….that was by the saw mill.

Roger: Tidwell said he would take you into town for a soda pop and all that.

Louis: Well of course. (Several inaudible paragraphs) Take you into town and get a soda pop out of it. “Don’t ya’ll tell nobody or you won’t get your soda pop”

Roger: Any idea what that kid’s name was or what cottage he was from?

Louis: Right, he was from Jefferson. He was from Jefferson Cottage.

Roger: I tell ya that Tidwell did some bad things. Let me ask you one question, I’ve never seen the saw mill because it was segregated at that time and I was on the white side. I have a picture that shows the woodshed which is a long type of building which was about 20 or 30 by 40 maybe with a metal top over the sides.

Louis: Right. It has a metal top is wide open with open sides and built like out of posts. It’s a real Saw mill with a big old saw.

Roger: Where was the body buried at, to the back of it or to the side of it?

Louis: Um, to the back of it, back in the woods. I remember that when the kid wouldn’t wake up anymore. Tidwell quickly got into the car quick and then he was worried and I was like I was worried. I didn’t say a peep. I kept quiet and then I kept pushing the kid with my knee, because I was hoping the kid would wake up. Because I couldn’t wake him, I couldn’t wake him ‘cause I was hogtied, I just kept gouging him with my leg and gouging him. I was like poking him with my knee. But trying to umm…

Roger: Yeah revive him, yeah.

Louis: Right. Revive him, I couldn’t revive him so I just trying to see if I could get a reaction from him and then I was trying… I remember clear that I was so concentrated on that and all I can remember the next thing is Tidwell was trying to get into something. He cussed out. He comes out and he pulls me out onto the ground real hard. He pulled the kid out. He goes back and opens the trunk. He can’t find the shovel. He can’t find nothing in his trunk but went in the saw mill I remember looking at him and he disappeared, but I can see Tidwell walking on the other side of the car, because I’m on the ground hogtied. So I was looking under the car. I can see his foot real clear. But when I’m looking under the car to see down the street, I seen the kid on the other side of the car lying on the (floor?). He was dead. Ummm.. Tidwell I seen him…….I only seen his foot walking away but when I seen him coming back he had a shovel.

Roger: Let me ask you this, at one point you said Tidwell started crying. What did you say that caused that?

Louis: I was digging the hole. (Several inaudible sentences)

Roger: Do you think when you were talking about Cool Hand Luke, do you think that’s what touched him?

Louis: No, I didn’t tell him he was strong like Cool Hand Luke In a letter my father sent me, he said I was going to end up like Cool Hand Luke. Cool Hand Luke died.

Roger: What do you think made him cry?

Louis: I told him I’m going to prove my dad wrong. I’m not going to die here. (10 or 15 inaudible sentences)

Roger: What do you think made Tidwell start crying?

Louis: No one will ever know, I was in the hole and he pushed the kid in there while I was in there. The kid fell half way on top of me. When he threw the kid in there it took me by surprise. (3 inaudible sentences) I got real scared. (4 inaudible sentences) You’re going to tell them I untied you and the other boy ran away. I don’t know what they expect from a man with one arm around here. You’re going to tell them I untied you, I tried to be nice and you both ran, but I caught you. I said O.K. I’ll tell them the other kid just ran off. And I don’t know where he went (one inaudible sentence) Tidwell said don’t worry about that. (3 inaudible sentences) O.K. then he took me back (3 inaudible sentences) He put me in the cell. He hogtied me in the cell. (A couple of sentences of Louis describing the interior of the cell)

Roger: Right yeah at one point there you told me something had touched Tidwell, because there were tears going down his cheek or something.

Louis: Right I told him the story about Cool Hand Luke.

Roger: What do you think about that story touched him?

Louis: I have no idea. (3 inaudible sentences) Some kids didn’t want to go back home. Some kids were destined to be here and some kids were destined to go back home. He asked me if I was destined to go back home, I said, “Yes I am”. I’m not going to die like Cool Hand Luke. (One inaudible sentence) Tidwell was strong; he was already in his sixties. He was strong. He was already an old man. He was a mean bastard. He would try to make himself nice, but he was a mean bastard. He had a reputation. Nobody fucked with Tidwell.

Roger: Well you know that he was definitely molesting boys for years?

Louis: Oh Roger, look let me tell you something. I’m not a racist, but if you were white, I don’t know what happened, but if you were Spanish or Black, you know Tidwell. I’m talking to someone who knows Tidwell. You know Tidwell. (Two inaudible sentences) Tell me what you want out of this Roger. You’re asking me questions like you don’t know Tidwell. You know Tidwell.

Roger: Yeah I know Tidwell was mean, but the thing I’m wondering about is Doctor Currie was molesting me. Of course this was in 1959.

Louis: Was Currie the one

Roger: He was the psychologist.

Louis: I’m hoping you’re really a best friend. I’m requesting my records. I’m requesting my records, because I saw this on your web site. This all came alive to me. Let me tell you what happened. A producer called me on the phone and I told him about Marianna and he looked it up. He called me back. He said, Louis are you aware of….. yada, yada, yada, yada. (Four inaudible sentences)

Roger: After he found that website he believed you.

Louis: Right.





After a very extensive eighteen month investigation we have been unable to find or locate any information on XXXXX XXX XXX whom we believe is the boy killed by Troy Tidwell. We have searched Social Security records, death records, military records, property records, criminal records, marital records, divorce records, newspaper archives, state archives and any and all civil records from every state. It appears after being sent to Marianna and having been picked up by Troy Tidwell late that night, the boy simply disappeared from the face of the earth. This may have been one (1) of the two (2) boys Tidwell mentioned in his deposition who escaped and was never heard from again. If in fact Tidwell killed this boy he had to say that the boy; at least one had escaped; and had never heard from again. It was important that he had to make that statement in order to cover the fact that he personally knew that no information would ever be found regarding this boy ever again. If so, that was a big mistake on his part.