Page 28 - Gary's Book - Final Copy 7.9.2017_Active

Betty stayed at Grace’s house for about nine months before returning to Alma’s.
Shortly after returning, Betty and Doug were in the driveway one day when two
men in suits approached them and asked if they wished to leave or stay there. They
said, “You have to decide now, and you can take nothing with you.” They asked

where I was, but Betty and Doug said that they didn’t know. They all left
immediately. Unfortunately, I did not know what happened to them or where they
went until many years later. Fortunately for them, they were returned to the
Masonic orphanage where they could continue their schooling through high school.
When this happened, I was just down the hill a short distance away (maybe 300
yards) cutting wood. If they had only known . . .

Adjoining the Jurnic farm and sharing a road easement was another property across

the road. The two owners were supposed to share responsibility for the
maintenance of the road. However, Alma was never even asked to help. Mr.
Herman Rousch, who owned a large furniture store on Morganford Road in St.
Louis, lived there, and he and Alma did not get along. Not wanting to even
encounter her, he just took care of everything. He apparently saw too many
beatings and mistreatments of the kids. Although he never knew my name, (he’d

say, “Hey, Bud”) I always waved to him when I saw him. Sometimes, we’d talk;
he was a friendly sort of guy. The problem was that he’d periodically shout over to
Alma about something, and she would shoot her 9mm Luger over toward his
house. He’d, of course, run for the porch and then inside – scared to death. She was
a c-r-a-z-y woman! It seems he would have put her on notice and let her know he

had a gun, too. That would have been the normal response in those parts at that
time. I have reason to believe he was the one who arranged for the pickup of Doug
and Betty.

When it was time to live with the Rios family, I had to legally go to court and
request those living arrangements from a judge. I drafted a note indicating that this
is what I desired and why. It meant I had to place my mother in a very negative

posture, which was not difficult for me to do. I recently found the three-page note I
wrote, and saw that the spelling and sentence structure were disgraceful. I was in
the seventh grade at the time. I told the judge at the hearing that my mother lived
only twenty miles away, but for the last four years, she had never called me, visited
me or invited me to her house. She had never sent a birthday card or any gifts. It
was during this time that Grace asked me if I wanted to be legally adopted and to

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