John Anderson December 3rd, 2016
The Innocent Man CRJ 101
The story of Ron Williamson’s life is a remarkable tragedy. A home town hero from Ada,
Oklahoma had a very bright future ahead of himself. Ron was a multi-sport athlete who
excelled at baseball. As he entered his last year of high school, Ron was a top prospect in the
nation and was eventually drafted by the Oakland Athletics in 1971. Despite having his dream
become a reality, Ron Williamson’s career took a turn for the worst.
The night of December 7th, 1982 changed it all. Debbie Carter was a bartender at a local
bar called The Coachlight. Long story short, she left the bar after having a dispute with a high
school friend, Glen Gore. The next morning at 11:00 a.m., Debbie Carter was found dead on her
bedroom floor. A captain and seventeen-year veteran of the ADA Police Department, Dennis
Smith was assigned to the homicide and surveyed the scene. Apparently, not very thoroughly.
The detective gathered evidence such as hair, fingerprints and a 4-inch square section of sheet
rock to preserve the small blood stain that was found above the base board. The day following
the murder detectives interviewed many possible suspects including Glen Gore. They managed
to fingerprint and take hair samples of all possible suspects except for Glen Gore. When I first
read this novel, I was shocked to discover that the police did not take every step in thoroughly
inspecting Gore. Although the police did ask Gore questions about the murder, they failed to go
further into the investigation and use physical evidence such as fingerprinting and hair samples
as a factor. In Glen Gore’s interview with the police, he mentioned that he knew Debbie from
high school but also said he saw a man named Ron Williamson pestering her that night. After a
while, the investigation goes bone dry with all the leads turning out inconclusive. Nobody’s
fingerprints or anything is proven to be on the scene.
In the meantime, Ron Williamson is on a downward spiral. He becomes depressed
because he has been rejected from Major League Baseball and his father passes away. Ron
begins drinking on a daily basis and enjoying the night life of chasing tail. He gets himself in all
sorts of trouble that builds up a case against himself including getting thrown behind bars for
foraging his Mother’s signature. Ron is a regular at numerous bars, he is the alleged rapist of
two different girls in Ada, he gets charged with multiple DUI’s, he can’t keep a job and
eventually ends up living in his mother’s house. Ron becomes friends with a man named Dennis
Fritz who gets dragged into the late-night lifestyle with Ron. Due to the association with Ron,
Dennis Fritz gets called down to the police station to “answer some questions” about the
