- An Ex-Con on Parole ! -

Brian Gary - Age 41

Details of the Crime

Brian Gary, 41, a convicted armed robber, in violation of his parole, is now charged with murdering a Granite City, Illinois woman on Saturday, January 7th, or Sunday morning, January 8th, 2006. The body of Carol Newby, 60, wasn't found until Wednesday afternoon when a warrant server went to her apartment to deliver an eviction notice. Granite City, population 33k, is located adjacent to East St. Louis, to the north.

Investigators believe Newby, known for helping those in need, was killed late Saturday night or early Sunday morning by a man with whom she was acquainted.

Brian Gary was initially arrested just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning a few blocks from the murder scene during a disturbance call. Granite City officers found him with a stereo that didn't belong to him. They also learned he was in violation of his parole from an armed robbery conviction out of Cook County, Illinois.

On Monday, authorities with the Illinois Department of Corrections returned Gary to the Menard Correctional Center. When Newby's body was discovered Wednesday, members of the Major Case Squad were able to connect the stolen stereo taken from Brian Gary to Newby's home.

Major Jeff Connor, deputy commander of the Major Case Squad, says, "We don't believe that he went there to rob her, but once he was there, something happened that escalated into the murder." Connor adds Gary's arrest early Sunday morning came within hours of Newby's death.

Investigators say Brian Gary was supposed to be in Cook County, but had come to Granite City about a year ago, staying on and off with his brother. Family members say Newby was just days away from moving to Jefferson City and the home of her son-in-law when she was killed.

Carol Newby - Age 60

Carol J. Newby Giving a Gospel Rap Music Performance

Murder victim, Carol Newby, was known as ‘Rapping Grandma'

The following article is from the Granite City Press Record
Michael Heil
Of the Suburban Journals
Granite City Press Record
01/15/2006



Carol Newby possessed a charisma and talent that had young and old alike marching to a positive beat.

Newby was known in Granite City as "Rapping Grandma." Over the last seven years, the 60-year-old grandmother of two participated in various functions throughout the area, reciting verses from the Bible that she used to create a Gospel rap called "Battle Cry of the King's Soldiers: Do You Have Jesus?"

"Doing this gives me the chance to share the Gospel with people who are down and out. I want to help them. I want to change their lives for the better," Newby said during an interview last year.

The good-natured Newby was found dead Wednesday by her landlord in her apartment at 2118 Delmar Avenue in Granite City. The landlord, Julian Wallace, could not be reached for comment.

On Friday, Brian E. Gary, 41, was charged with first-degree murder in Newby's death and with burglary for allegedly breaking into a different residence on Delmar Avenue on Christmas Day. Gary is in custody at Menard Correction Center on a parole violation warrant.

According to a press release from the Madison County State's Attorney's Office, Newby was murdered following and argument and struggle with Gary. He was an acquaintance of Newby, who was last seen alive Jan. 7 at the Taco Bell on Madison Avenue.

Granite City Assistant Police Chief Jeff Connor said Friday that authorities have "a vital piece of evidence that connects Gary to the murder."

That evidence is a small stereo that police seized from Gary last Sunday at a residence in the 2000 block of Cleveland Boulevard. Police responded to a disturbance at the residence and took Gary into custody on a warrant stemming from an armed robbery conviction out of Cook County in 1999.

Gary was transported to the Menard Correctional Center, where he was interviewed Thursday by detectives.

Police arrived at Newby's apartment about 5:21 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a phone call from Wallace, who discovered Newby's body after jarring open the front door of the apartment. Authorities believe that Newby was murdered shortly before Gary was taken into custody on Cleveland Boulevard.

An autopsy performed Thursday by the Madison County Coroner's Office indicated that the cause of death was due to severe head and facial trauma. Police Chief Richard Miller would not say if authorities confiscated a murder weapon.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Area Major Case Squad assisted the Granite City Police Department in the investigation into Newby's death. Connor was the deputy commander.

Connor said that Gary had lived on Edison Avenue for about a year, at times with his brother. Police don't know how long Newby lived in the apartment, but Connor said she went out of her way to help people. Some of the people she came in contact with weren't "stellar," he said.

"There were a lot of people in and out of the house because she was a friendly person. She acted like a counselor," he said.

In June, the Press-Record interviewed Newby about her Gospel rap. At that time, she lived on the first floor of the two-story apartment duplex with her daughter.

Newby had been taking medicine for a heart ailment, but that didn't stop her from rapping.

"I noticed young people were drawn to rap and rock. God has given me rhythm and the ability to do both," Newby said during the interview while donning her special "rapping" hat. "People are surprised and curious because of my age."

Newby said she was given the name "Rapping Grandma" by the Rev. John Henry Williams of Shining Light Church in Venice.

"I rapped there. He thought it was the perfect name for me. It really caught on. That's what everybody calls me," she said.

Last summer Newby performed at St. John's Lutheran Church in Granite City as part of a fund-raising event and in St. Louis at the New Life Evangelistic Center. The New Life event was attended by a group of 150, many of whom were homeless.

Newby's life was centered on God and helping others. A couple years ago when she was in Pontoon Beach she came across two young men about to buy liquor. One was considering suicide, she said, so she introduced herself as "Rapping Grandma'' before she performed for them.

"I stopped it. I gave him hope," she said.

Newby's apartment was tidy and filled with religious items, including a large cross hanging from a wall in the living room area. Newby said that every time she looked at the cross, she felt content about life.

"I've dedicated my life to the Lord. He's fed me spiritually. He's given me the strength to go on and accept what ever comes my way," said Newby, who had little or no income and apparently lived at the apartment for free.
 

Comment:

A Google News Search (carol newby murder granite city) turned up nine articles on this brutal murder. All of these articles were from the East St. Louis/St. Louis area. This murder reinforces the danger involved with being too closely associated with Black males. Many people have a natural inclination to be helpful, but, if you are not careful, this can cause you serious problems.

This is another murder which has taken place on the fringe of the Bible Belt, just outside of the South. As I have stated in a previous case study, the people who live on the fringe of the Bible Belt have a tendency to be overly religious. That is, they have a tendency to create an identity centered almost entirely around their religion. The reason for this is because, in these amorphous regions, on the fringe of the Bible Belt, the social structure is lacking to such an extent that the people have to rely on religion to maintain their identity. And, a second point to be made is that the relationship between the Blacks and the Whites is not of long standing, and the Black and the Whites do not have any real respect for one another. Their relationship is artificial and oscillates between total charity and benevolence on the part of the Whites to total lack of respect and hatred on the part of the Blacks.

By contrast, the people who live in the Deep South have a social structure that has been established between the Blacks and the Whites. The people of the Deep South have created an identity centered around their "Southernness," i.e., they know who they are through their history, through the fact that they owned slaves, and that they fought a war with the Northern States. Although the African Americans are no longer slaves, the Blacks and the Whites have an established social structure, in which both find security. This structure provides both communities with a basis for their identity. The people who live on the fringe of the  The Bible Belt (one could also say: on the fringe of the Deep South), do not have a history of owning slaves or of having fought a war together, and the relationship between the Blacks and the Whites in these areas is not as clearly defined as in the Deep South.

When a relationship is not clearly defined, both parties do not behave in conventional, predictable ways vis-à-vis one another. Hence you have the Whites behaving in overly friendly and even fawning ways toward the Blacks and the Blacks often exploit this attitude - sometimes by becoming violent with the very people who have tried to help them. And this brings us full circle, back to the relationship between Carol Newby and Brian Gary. Mrs. Newby's Christian charity was a poor substitute for the social structure that exists in the Deep South which serves to keep the Blacks respectful of White people. Primitive people respect firmness and strength, but they don't respect weakness, prostration and servility.

There was a similar case that occurred on October 28, 2005, in Pasadena, Texas (Population 120k, a southeast suburb of Houston). Mrs. Betty Blair, 77, widow of the former president of the Pasadena School Board, Robert Blair, was killed by three Hurricane Katrina evacuees - one Black, one Asian, and one Hispanic. Mrs. Blair, who was a devout Christian (Catholic) and a Church Leader, was helping the trio by paying them to do odd jobs and yard work on her property. They strangled her to death. Mrs. Blair was described as a very sweet and giving person. Again, Pasadena and Houston are in the amorphous area in the western reaches of the Bible Belt. Those who have demonstrated excessive charity toward such no-account low-life have paid dearly for their excesses.

The social dynamic which I have described above is extremely difficult to stop. This means that more murders of this type will take place in the near future. I can only issue the same warning that I did after the deaths of Robert Osborn, Damon Womble and Betty Jean Sweet - all very trusting, mild-mannered Christian people from the fringe of the Bible Belt: Be alert at all times, but especially so when Black males are around. And don't allow some modern-day, distorted interpretations of Christianity allow you to fall prey to violent, no-account low-life. Christianity has not survived for 2000 years through Christians allowing no-good heathens into their homes, only to have them kill you. Rather than letting modern-day suicidal fads in Christianity establish your identity and determine your behavior, establish your own identity through your will to survive. Because, if you allow the do-gooders to disarm you, the aggressive, no-account, low-life will exploit those weaknesses and it might cost you your life.

Yours Faithfully, Liberty