| Location | Sylacauga, Alabama |
| Age | 39 years |
| Cause of Death | Murder |
| Date of Birth | 21/01/1960 |
| Date of Death | 19/02/1999 |
| Visitors | 137 since 25/10/2009 |
| Creator |
Billy Jack Gaither died like no one should ever have to die–in pain, in terror, and alone. Two
unhappy, hate-filled young men took out their homophobia, and that of their community, state, and
region upon a gentle, loyal, pious Alabamian.
Billy Jack Gaither, 39 a Sylacauga resident and Russell Corp. employee, was was bludgeoned to death
with an axe handle in Coosa County, Alabama and his body burned the night of Feb. 19, 1999.
Gaither's body was discovered by a passerby Feb. 20.
Billy Jack Gaither died like no one should ever have to die–in pain, in terror, and alone. Two
unhappy, hate-filled young men took out their homophobia, and that of their community, state, and
region upon a gentle, loyal, pious Alabamian.
Coosa County authorities arrested two Talladega County men, Steven Eric Mullins, 25, who is
unemployed, and Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21, a construction worker, both residents of nearby
Fayetteville, who confessed they killed Gaither after claiming he made unwanted sexual advances at
Mullins.Mullins was known around town for wearing KKK T shirts; he and Butler had brushes with the
law in the past.
They planned to attack Billy Jack for at least two weeks before arranging to meet. It was Friday
night, Feb. 19, when Mullins called Gaither at home and the two went to a place called The Frame, a
bar and pool hall in Sylacauga, where they met Butler. They went to the Tavern, a bar in Sylacauga,
then they left in Gaither's car for a ride. Sometime after leaving the bar, Mullins and Butler beat
Billy Jack and stuffed him into the trunk of his own car.
They drove a small country road 30 miles south, to Peckerwood Creek. The pavement ends and a gravel
road leads to a bridge over Peckerwood Creek. Just at the end of the bridge a trail leads back by
the side of the creek to the site of the old bridge. Down the trail about a half a mile they
stopped. The access of the old bridge made a place for cars to turn around. But on the night of
February it became a place of death for Billy Jack. There he was drug from the trunk of his own car
and bludgeoned once more to death with ax handles. His body was drenched with Kerosene and thrown on
a pyre of blazing tires - tires that had been ignited with the same Kerosene that now covered his
body.
If I should go tomorrow
It would never be goodbye,
For I have left my heart with you,
So don't you ever cry.
The love that's deep within me,
Shall reach you from the stars,
You'll feel it from the heavens,
And it will heal the scars.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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