Page 39 - June July 2017

Guilt vs Innovence: The Story of Billy Kuenzel ,

any evidence to suggest that Mr. Kuenzel Senior was husband became concerned about Venn having borrowed
lying. his gun. He consulted an attorney and was interviewed
by the police. Nothing came of this questioning and Billy
However, amongst this “new evidence” was the was never informed that the gun was not in fact a .12
original police statement from Harvey Venn. In gauge as Venn had claimed and could potentially be the
this first statement, Venn admitted he had been murder weapon.
at the store with a man called David Pope. When
C questioned about his roommates’ whereabouts, There was also the expert affidavit of Dr James R Gill

A he stated that Billy had been at home in bed, who had examined various contusions on both the
P corroborating Glenn Kuenzel’s testimony. There is victim, who had bruising on her arm and small wounds
also no record of any further investigation into David on her hand, and Harvey Venn who had a bruised eye and
I Pope. Altogether, ten separate witnesses claimed they left arm. He stated that these injuries were “consistent
T saw Venn accompanied by another white male that with Ms. Offord and Venn having recently been engaged
A night. Not one of them identified the accomplice as in a physical altercation with one another.” Venn’s
injuries are also corroborated by police notes taken
Billy Kuenzel and not one of them was ever shown
L a photograph of David Pope and asked if he was the during his initial interview (also withheld) which include
man in question. the comments “looks like he has a black eye” and “left

P The initial police reports also state that there were arm looks bruised”. These notes make several references
to Venn being uneasy during the interview such as being
U traces of blood found on the pants worn by Harvey having a “wavering voice”, “chewing his fingers” and
N Venn. When questioned, Venn told the police it was getting “real flushed” when providing information on his

I red paint and later claimed that it was the blood of whereabouts that evening.
a squirrel. Forensic tests confirmed that the blood
S in fact came from the victim. The prosecution at the I’m from the UK and first learned about Billy’s case

H trial claimed that the blood must have come from the early in March 2013. I decided to write a book, part of
M gun used in the shooting. Ballistics confirmed that which includes a pen-pal relationship I had during the
Linda Offord was killed by a bullet in the chest from 1990’s with an inmate of Holman Prison. I responded to
E a .16 gauge shotgun. Robert Rumsey categorically an article in a British magazine encouraging people to

N stated it was Glenn Kuenzel’s gun that was used yet write to Death Row inmates and was put in touch with a
T forensics showed it contained no traces of blood man called Tommy Whisenhant who had been on Death
Row since 1977. I had no knowledge of the crime he
despite the fact it had not been cleaned so how was
the explanation for why the victims’ blood was found had committed and during our correspondence, it was
on Venn’s clothes deemed to be an acceptable one? never discussed. At the time, I was in my early 20’s and
a little naive. There was no internet and I had limited
There was no dispute that Billy had borrowed his access to information on the whole concept of the Death
stepfather’s gun to go hunting but Mr. Kuenzel Penalty. In 2004, I eventually obtained Internet access,
insisted it had been returned before the murder and began to research Tommy and uncovered a shocking
he had in fact seen it at his home the night before; and intriguing story of a serial killer who had raped and
Venn claimed that he had also borrowed a gun from murdered three women. Over the years, I conducted
his friend Sam Gibbons but that it was a .12 gauge. regular research concerning Tommy’s case. His defense
However, Billy’s lawyer received a signed testimony team had filed a string of petitions on the grounds of
(written in 1999) from Sam Gibbon’s wife, Carolyn insanity, all of which were denied. He was eventually
Lewis-Gibbons detailing a night “toward the end executed in 2010 after 32 years, 8 months and 20 days,
of October 1987” when Harvey Venn called late to longer than any prisoner has ever spent on death row in
her home one Sunday night to borrow a .16 gauge Alabama.
shotgun from her husband. Venn claimed he wanted
it to go hunting but when they heard about the When I made the decision to write my book (a current
murder two weeks later, Mrs. Gibbons said her “work in progress”) I decided it may be useful to
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