This from my "OLD" backpacking buddy and deacon ... Fred Good
I was a Greenville, SC police officer from 1953 until 1957. One case that I recall involved the theft of an eighteen wheeler Overnight transportation truck loaded with cartons of Phillip Morris cigarettes. My partner, Ray Berry and I investigated this case and arrested two young men. Tom Chandler and Clyde Bushee, for the theft.
I was a Greenville, SC police officer from 1953 until 1957. One case that I recall involved the theft of an eighteen wheeler Overnight transportation truck loaded with cartons of Phillip Morris cigarettes. My partner, Ray Berry and I investigated this case and arrested two young men. Tom Chandler and Clyde Bushee, for the theft.
We had found the truck but without the cigarettes. We had enough evidence to try these men but we needed to know where the cigarettes had been stored.
We questioned Tom Chandler, who was co-operative and turned states evidence, which he believed would help reduce his sentence. We then questioned Clyde Bushee who refused to turn states evidence until we told him we didn't need his testimony because Tom had already told us the whole story. He squirmed a couple of minutes and then asked us if Tom had told us they had stolen a Cocran transfer truck loaded with sugar. This was news to us. We had not heard about this theft.
We investigated and found that Clyde had told the truth about the load of sugar.
We now had to issue a second warrant on both men for the Cocran theft. Later
I had to visit Tom Chandler in the county jail. He had already heard about the second warrant. This man was mad as a hornet. He said, "Good, if I ever get out of prison I'll kill you!" At the time, I thought little about the threat because it was not rare to hear this from someone you are sending to prison.
I left the Police Department in 1957 and started a Beauty Supply Company here in Tallahassee, Florida. Part on my sales territory was in The Pensacola area. I had sold a Salon some equipment in Pensacola Beach. She called me on a Monday and told me that one of the hair dryers was not working right, and knowing that I would be in the area on Tuesday, asked if I would go to the shop and repair the dryer. She said she would not be there but she had hired a man to do some painting in the shop and the door would be open.
This was about ten years after our arrest of Tom Chandler and Tom Bushee.
I drove to the shop, and walked through the open door with my tool kit. There was a man on a ladder painting the eves. He turned and looked at me. I knew who it was.
He said, you are Officer Good. I said, yes, and you are Tom Chandler. I didn't know what was going to happen. He came off the ladder, reached out to shake my hand, and said, Mr. Good, I want to thank you for saving my life! At the time we were arrested, Clyde and I were on a path of crime and destruction. When I went to prison I lost my family, both my wife and children, and I understand ... I don't blame them. Shortly after I went to prison I accepted CHRIST as my Lord and Savior. I served him in prison and I'm serving him now. I have a business here at the beach called Tom's Fixit shop. I attend Church regular and am giving my testimony about my conversion any time I'm asked. We talked for awhile ,and with tears in his eyes, Tom embraced me and thanked me again.
God works in mysterious ways !
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Rom.8:28.
