Absolutely OT: Wigged robber on loose again ** UPDATED

Whistle
1

I don’t know if y’all will find this as amusing as I did. Maybe I thought it was funny because my birthplace is Fort Payne (Alabama), I lived for a while in Collinsville, and I’m familiar with many of the places mentioned–but none of the people named.

I’ve been up here north of the Mason-Dixon since 1976 and have almost completely lost my accent (protective coloration, you know). But in the Internet age, I can check in at the hometown paper from time to time.

Marguerite

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http://www.times-journal.com/report.lasso?wcd=1523

Wigged robber on loose again

By Kelly Townsend
The Times-Journal

Published December 03, 2003

A Fort Payne man serving time for robbing convenience stores dressed as a woman in a red wig escaped from a patrol car Tuesday while being brought back to DeKalb County for a hearing.

Three hours later, Benjamin Anthony Wilhite, 43, was caught in Etowah County in the woods around the Noccalula Falls exit by Sinclair County Correctional Facility dogs. By 5 p.m. on Tuesday, he was safely in the DeKalb County Jail.

Wilhite was serving time at West Jefferson State Prison for first-degree robbery and a parole violation. Now he faces charges of first-degree escape.

According to County investigator Rhonda Jackson, Wilhite escaped from a cruiser while deputies stopped at a service station on the Noccalula exit on Interstate-59.

Jackson said the 5-foot-1-inch, 105-pound Wilhite shimmied through the sliding window in the patrol car and left through one of the front doors.

“All we know at this point is that he slid through this hole into the front seat and then walked out the door while the deputy was inside the station,” Jackson said.

Wilhite was convicted in the spring of 2002 for robbing the Pit Stop on Godfrey Avenue in Fort Payne while dressed as a woman wearing a red wig and armed with a hand gun. He got away with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Before he was caught, Wilhite led officers on a high-speed chase through Collinsville before spikes flatted the tires of the van he was driving.

The chase didn’t end there. Wilhite, still dressed as a woman in a wig, took off on foot but was eventually caught.

Sheriff Cecil Reed said Wilhite was not hurt during the escape but was checked out at Baptist DeKalb hospital.

“He is fine. He will spend the night in DeKalb County jail and will now face charges of escape in the first degree,” Reed said.

Etowah County Sheriff’s department, Alabama State Troopers and Gadsden Police helped in the search by blocking off the exit and stopping motorists.

2

Red hair is hard to pull off for naturally darker haired people. They don’t call it “redhead skin” for nothing.

Isn’t it weird how some people loose their accent and some don’t? I know people from “up north” who have lived here for 20, 30, 40 years and still have city accents.

3

Years ago, I knew a man from Yorkshire (the leader of the recorder ensemble I used to play in, as it happens) who’d moved to rural northern California.

It was interesting to follow the changes in his accent; over the course of several years it went from very strong to barely present. But whenever he returned from a trip back to England, his accent would be back in full force for a week or two.

Apparently, the reverse process held true in England - he told us his family accused him of talking like a Yank for the first week or so he was there.

On the other hand, I don’t think English has directly affected my wife’s Cantonese accent - but she and her friends throw lots of English words into a Cantonese conversation, enough I can often follow the general course of what they’re discussing. But it only seems to happen when she’s talking to other long-term US residents; the English nearly vanishes when visiting Hong Kong.

4

There are lots of reasons to lose an accent. I never had much of one to start with–Mom brought me up to pronounce my words carefully. Her mom was from the midwest.

A big reason for me to blend in locally, though, is so people won’t automatically think I’m an idiot. In the past couple of years, when I tell otherwise polite people I’m from the South, I’ve been told how nasty Southerners can be and it was suggested my cousins all married each other.

My dad was a third-generation pharmacist and my sisters and I all have bachelor’s degrees and professional jobs. We have all our teeth and enjoy recreational reading. But the national impression of the South as Bubba-land is so pervasive as to overwhelm any facts to the contrary. Not that there aren’t a bunch of Bubbas, although you can find a lot of Bubba-like people anywhere in the country.

One last thing–I was once spotted as a Southerner by an actor. She said my “laid-back laugh” gave me away.

M

5

Well, you see, since I have an accent and also don’t wash my hair I can get away with telling people I’m European.

6

Let me see if I can explain this so it makes sense…
I spent a summer at the University of Bonn studying German.
Over the fourth of July weekend, a couple of us went to Grenoble, France to see Maura, a friend from our (US) university who also spoke German, but was studying French there.
Maura’s English was unaffected, but her German had aquired a distinctly French accent! :boggle:

7

Seems a bit harsh…

Wig-wearing robber enters plea of guilty

By Kelly Townsend
The Times-Journal

Published December 04, 2003

Benjamin Anthony Wilhite was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty to charges of first-degree attempted robbery and first-degree robbery Wednesday afternoon.

Wilhite was given 614 days credit on jail time and ordered to pay a fine in conjunction with charges of first-degree attempted robbery exceeding no more than $10,000.

District Attorney Mike O’Dell said Wilhite would also be expected to pay court costs that could amount up to around $12,000.

Wilhite had been brought back to DeKalb County at least twice for court hearings and was excused from one of those hearings to be taken for a mental evaluation.

After conferring with his lawyer and Circuit Judge David Rains, he decided to waive the mental evaluation and plead guilty to both charges.

Wilhite was sent to prison in May 2002 and escaped from a state facility in Elmore County in October 2002. He was captured the following day and sentenced on that escape in July.

Wilhite was returning to DeKalb County on Tuesday from Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County for a hearing involving charges of robbing convenience stores, in March 2002, while dressed as a woman wearing a red wig.

He escaped custody while at a store at the Noccalula Falls exit off Interstate 59 after he crawled though the opening of a glass security window less than 1-foot square and into the front seat. He opened the front door and escaped into the woods across the street from the store.

Wilhite was caught 90 minutes later by a K-9 tracking team from St. Clair prison.

Wednesday was not the first time he led DeKalb deputies on a chase. In March 2002, he had stolen a van in Dade County, Ga., and robbed a convenience store at gunpoint in Fort Payne.

A state trooper spotted the van and he and Etowah County deputies pursued it into DeKalb County on U.S. 11. When he stopped Wilhite ran into the woods where he was found wearing a black dress, bra, slip, high heels a wig.

Wilhite was returned to Donaldson Correctional Facility after the hearing and will face charges of Escape in Etowah County sometime in December.