Born With a Rusty Spoon: Episode 44
...When he was finally released from jail, the man came into the bar while Mama was on shift, ordered a beer, and sauntered over by the entrance. The bar had swinging half-doors, like those in the old western movies. Nobody paid much attention to the husband as he stood by the door drinking his beer...
Artist Bertie Stroup Marah recalls a horrific crime which occurred in the bar where her mother worked.
To buy a copy of Bertie's wonderful book please visit
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Rusty-Spoon-Artists-Memoir/dp/1935514660/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1282226141&sr=1-1-fkmr0
To see some of her pictures click on
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=bertie+stroup+marah+pictures&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=5vpkTNykBtKR4gbsgJmWCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQsAQwAA
Mama was bartending on Main Street in Aztec when I was a senior in high school. I worked at Spencer's Drug Store on Main Street at the same time; my job was much more pleasant than Mama's. One day a terrible thing happened right before her eyes. There was a couple in Aztec who had some domestic problems that landed the husband in jail. The wife was an ugly heavyset woman whose face bore witness to her former occupation as a lady wrestler. Her nose was crooked and flattened from having been repeatedly broken and her hair hung in oily strings to her broad shoulders. From all accounts she was as tough as she looked and had lost very few matches during her career.
While her husband was locked up for a few months she took to driving by the jail with her new boyfriend, taunting, honking and waving as her husband looked out from the barred cell window.
Mama said of her behavior, which was common knowledge, "That woman may be mean but she's not too smart. You don't tease a mad dog just because he's tied up. He could get loose and bite you in the butt."
When he was finally released from jail, the man came into the bar while Mama was on shift, ordered a beer, and sauntered over by the entrance. The bar had swinging half-doors, like those in the old western movies. Nobody paid much attention to the husband as he stood by the door drinking his beer.
A little later, the ex-wrestler wife, with her new boyfriend, came into the bar, swaggered past the husband and took a booth at the back of the bar where they ordered and paid for a drink. She pointedly ignored her husband as the two drank and laughed. After finishing their drink they started walking toward the door. She walked by her husband as though he did not exist.
At that moment, he quickly stepped behind her and grabbed her with one arm. With the other, he reached around and nearly decapitated her with a large pocket knife he had hidden in his jacket. She died instantly, her face frozen in a mask of surprise. As she fell, she crashed though the swinging doors and her blood ran across the sidewalk and into the street.
As this horror was unfolding, P.G. and my sisters were walking up the street toward the bar to pick up Mama who was finishing her shift. Because of the crowd that had gathered, Reita said fortunately all she saw was the blood running across the sidewalk and into the gutter. This murder didn't seem to faze Mama very much.
"It's those quiet ones you have to look out for," she said. "I knew that bitch was askin' for trouble when she kept tauntin' him. I'd say she got what she asked for."
